Bloodfalls:

The Kruna burst through the tunnel underneath the Muda Mountains and emerged into Geno's Sanctuary, but what they found cut through their spirits like a gash from a dull knife. Though it was hard to tell under the darkness of the night and the persistent rainfall, the once majestic and heavenly valley had withered and died out. The ground had become barren and cracked, the remaining patches of grass had wilted and fallen apart underneath the pounding of the raindrops, and the sparse amount of trees in the area had contorted and warped into lifeless trunks with wicked, crippled limbs.

"Geno!" Nova Daisy called out. "Are ya here?!"

No response. Daisy called out again, but still, nothing. None of the Kruna could sense anything or anyone. Geno's house still stood across the river – or what was once a river but had since become a dried up ravine. The Sanctuary felt as abandoned and dead as Castle Town.

The rain let up into a soft drizzle as the Kruna crossed the once full trench and scouted around the area beyond Geno's house. The sandpit where they had often gathered was still there, illuminated by lightning strikes horizontally streaking through the sky above. The mirror leading to the Warrior's Realm was also right where it was before, but it looked to have lost its magic through a diagonal crack across the center. Raindrops seeped in through the crack of the weathered mirror, the sound of impact seeming to reverberate through the air. It was Geno's magic along with the Kruna's eight elemental powers that made the mirror active before, but now, the mirror had no semblance of energy flowing through it whatsoever.

"That's it then," Bowser murmured. "Geno's not here..."

Daisy saw the tree she had planted the day of the fight against Marissa. She walked up close to it and noticed that it was the only tree still alive in the sanctuary. It had grown to stretch a few feet above Daisy, its silvery dark brown trunk and branched limbs trying hard to grasp onto the life it still had. Despite everything else around the tree having faltered and died, some lotus and hibiscus flowers somehow managed to bloom on some of its branches.

The sight made Daisy's eyes water as she collapsed onto her knees, though she fought hard to keep herself from breaking down and crying. The others gathered alongside her and stared at the tree. Neva knelt down beside Daisy and hugged her, and Warra put a hand on the earth wielder's shoulder. No one felt a need to speak at all at that moment, nor did anyone think it appropriate to.

Neva sniveled and nestled closer to Daisy. Marut and Athelstan both stared at the lotus and hibiscus flowers, glum in the face and full of uncertainty. Bowser closed his eyes and bowed his head as he knelt down. Andrew turned away and looked in some other direction, only for Ramona to move towards him and see him wiping off angered drops from his eyes. Warra took a hairband out of his pocket and used it to tie his long hair into a ponytail, though he kept some hair hanging out over his forehead to try and conceal his face – much in the same way Ramona did with hers – as he glanced at his feet, motionless.

It ran through all of the Kruna's minds at that moment; a singular, universal feeling that ate into their spirits and souls. Utter failure. The somber and depressive stupor took them all over and filled their minds with so many questions. But the queries and wonders all revolved around one theme. All the Kruna could think about, one way or another, was just how badly they failed and all the known and unknown repercussions and consequences that came about as a result.

For a while, the Kruna just let the remnants of the passing storm drizzle down and cause the only sounds that broke the otherwise overwhelming silence. No one knew what to do. No one knew what they could do. In a world both so familiar, yet so bizarre and foreign, every last one of them was lost. They knew next-to-nothing about the world around them or the situation.

Daisy looked down at Neva leaning into her in distress and anguish. For as ill-tempered and bitter as the little ice wielder had proven herself to be, her intimate gesture was nothing short of unexpected. But then again, none of them had expected to find the world the way they did when they dropped out of the portal and onto the Bellbridge Terrace a while ago. Daisy put her arm around Neva, and though it made the Kruna of Ice look less distraught, it also made her cry harder. Neva's depressed angst tugged at Daisy's heart, for she couldn't stand seeing anyone so sad and upset.

"No..." murmured Daisy, wiping her face with her free arm. "We can't cry now. There's more than enough crying going on in the world now, I'm sure of it... Guys, we've gotta go."

"Where, exactly?" asked Andrew. "We don't have anywhere to go. I'll bet this whole planet's effectively trashed..."

"We're going to go find Marissa and finish what we started," said Daisy. "This is all her doing, and we weren't around to prevent her from carrying this all out, so let's go find her and fix all this."

"We just barely got away from that robot monster and you want us to go after Marissa?" asked Warra. "No, we're too weak and we'd be walking right into a trap-"

"Well, we need to do something!" Daisy snapped, bursting out into raging tears. "We can't just sit here and sulk while everything around us is suffering! We gotta defeat Marissa! We need to find Geno, find Rosalina, Mario and Luigi, Donkey Kong, Arka Knight, my dad – somebody!"

"If they're even alive..." Neva murmured.

"Rosalina would've showed up by now," muttered Bowser.

"But remember when she was talking about Mario and Luigi being on a very high-level mission?" asked Ramona. "She only came but once and left in a hurry on account of providing them aid. I mean, who knows how long ago that was in this world, but, what if they're out there fighting Marissa right now, and Rosalina hasn't come to us because she's watching over Mario and Luigi, or she's actually fighting against her with them as we speak?"

"Why now, though?" asked Bowser. "Why not before everything in the world became...this?"

Marut tugged on his hat. "Oh, I don't know what's going on! What are we doing?!"

"What are you doing?" a familiar voice called out.

Daisy gasped, not needing to turn around to know who's sharp and metallic voice had spoken behind her. The Kruna turned to see Kokoro the Soul Stealer standing not too far away in all his vampiric, horrifying glory. He looked no different from the last time they saw him, and he still had the Master Pendant secured around his neck. Daisy helped Neva up and stepped to the front of the group to confront the demonic archfiend that had caused them so much trouble.

"You guys should pay attention, you know," said Kokoro. "Instead of keeping your senses alert, you want to gather around a stupid tree. Interesting."

"What do you want, Kokoro?" barked Daisy.

"I just want to congratulate you on a job well done," said the Soul Stealer. "You could not have failed any more than you have. Really, you and everyone else here would have been better off if you had died instead of failed and lived on. That's worse, don't you think?"

"Why didn't you do anything to stop her?!" Daisy yelled.

"Fools!" snapped Kokoro, stifling a laugh. "Why should I care about this world? I am not a part of your miserable society...or, whatever's left of it, anyways. Besides; that Nirvana Barrier overhead is granting me quite the generous increase in power. Funny thing too, actually; it seemed like that night of the Blood Moon eight years ago, I experienced a noticeable uptick in power from this Master Pendant. And then combined with this barrier over the planet – it added to my magical acuity even more! What say you, Daisy? What have you accomplished hiding for eight years?"

"Eight years?!" Daisy asked in wonder. "...What..."

"Yes," said Kokoro. "While you were all off skulking in whatever underground bunker of shame you hid out in, the whole world more or less went to Hell. Really, that demon witch had an easy time."

"Hey, we weren't hiding!" Daisy barked. "You're the one who's always lurking about in secrecy!"

"Oh, really?" replied Kokoro, crossing his arms. "So where were you all this time? Don't try to say that you had all been training in the time since you were gone, because you all seem a good deal weaker since the last I saw you. But then again, maybe that's because everyone and everything on this planet has gotten that much more powerful in your absence..."

"And just what are you still doing with that Master Pendant?" asked Bowser. "You need to get rid of that thing! I don't care if you've held it this long – it's too dangerous to have!"

"Oh?" replied Kokoro. "I beg to differ. For you see, I've been doing a little research on this Master Pendant. This Master Pendant contains a divine power locked away by the eight elements. If I can unlock the sealed power within this gem and take full advantage of its secrets, I can become a god among mortals and claim some of this forsaken galactic rock for my own."

Daisy's eyes intensely narrowed. "That's wicked power in that Alkemei, Kokoro. You don't wanna unlock that!"

"Au contraire," replied the Soul Stealer. "The so-called 'wicked power' has been guiding me ever since I got a hold of this Master Pendant; this, 'Alkemei,' as you just said. It wants me to unlock the powers within-"

"You're right – I bet it does!" snapped Daisy. "But not to benefit you!"

"Well, it's certainly not to benefit you either," said Kokoro. "I believe it may have something to do with the Crystal Tears that came into being not too long after you all disappeared. Maybe if you were to 'help' me with my search to make up for burning my Scroll of Souls, then that means I would only have to rip one of your arms off to get even with you, Daisy. I bet with the Crystal Tears working on my Master Pendant, I could succeed against Marissa where you all failed."

"Crystal Tears..." murmured Ramona. "Like, actual, solidified tears?"

"Nice try, Kokoro," said Daisy. "But we know that even if you do intend on defeating Marissa, you've still got some ulterior motives for even suggesting such a thing."

"What are these Crystal Tears, even?" asked Warra.

Kokoro grunted in disgust. "I was hoping you all would have had some collected already or would have at least been able to tell me where to look, but I can't even take any from you seeing as how you're obviously blind and oblivious to their existence." In a disgruntled haste, he turned and headed in the direction of the mountain tunnel back out to Sarasa Field.

"Now where are you going?" yelled Daisy.

"I've got business I need to take care of," Kokoro shouted back, not bothering to turn his head. "I'm not wasting my time and power dealing with you lot. Maybe it's better you all just stay ignorant and crawl back into whatever shell of a home you've all been hiding out in for the past eight years. I am going to look for Crystal Tears here in Sarasaland. You all are going to stay out of my way if you know what's good for you. Enjoy, for this is the only time I will be even a trifle bit merciful."

The Kruna watched as Kokoro entered the tunnel leading into and through the mountains. Soon, the Soul Stealer had disappeared from sight without any hitch in his gait. The rain had now lightened into a misty sprinkle, though lightning continued to flash ahead. There was no telling what time it was, for the moon could not be seen anywhere thanks to the Nirvana Barrier encircling the planet.

"Well, we just got blitzed with a good deal of information," muttered Neva.

"Crystal tears though," Ramona mumbled. "That sounds so...sad..."

"We need to scout around Sarasaland," said Andrew. "Let's see what we can find, if anything."

"I agree," said Daisy. She gestured with her arms to get everyone to follow her as she made her way towards the mountain tunnel. "C'mon. There's got to be someone around here that can fill us in on more about what happened to this world."

"There must be a link between wearing all-black and being impulsive," grumbled Bowser, glaring at Daisy and Andrew in turn. "Just where are we supposed to go?"

Daisy shrugged. "Somewhere. Anywhere but here. We've done all we could here, so let's go."

"Yeah," said Andrew. "If nothing else, at least we can get a better assessment of the situation when we can see what's up with the other places around here."

"And run the risk of getting cut off by that monster robot?" Bowser replied.

"We don't have a choice, now do we?" snapped Daisy. "We'll just have to be careful is all. Unless you all just wanna sit here and wait for nothing at all to happen, we need to get out there and get started on trying to undo what seems to be more and more of a dystopia with each passing moment."


Having left Geno's Sanctuary, the Kruna trekked through Sarasa Field. They decided to avoid going anywhere in the western vicinity of Sarasaland to make sure they could keep the risk of running into the monstrous biomechanical robot from earlier low. Even so, there was no guarantee that the robot had already changed direction and ventured somewhere else; or even that it had not already locked onto them and had been following them from behind. But at this point, the Kruna couldn't second guess themselves as they had nothing to work off of. Ramona and Andrew found themselves unable to combine their elemental powers to create a portal, likely due to interference from the Nirvana Barrier. With that ability scrapped, fast travel was out of the question.

Traveling on foot ate up a lot of time, and the Kruna all had gotten tired and sleepy as they pressed on with their fatigued bodies. Daisy and Marut clutched at their stomachs a few times, expressing obvious – albeit comical – hunger. Judging by their environment though, they were a long ways off from food, recovery items, and possibly even civilization.

At no point did the Kruna sense any other sentient life during their run up north through the deformed, decrepit Sarasa Field. Bowser's Alkemei Kracielle couldn't pickup on anything in any direction except for a few wild animals lurking about. What made things worse was that no one could sense the Dark Sentinel robot, considering none of them could sense it during their encounter with it in Castle Town. That meant that the omnidirectional vision granted through Bowser's Alkemei was the only means of detecting the robot if it got close.

They had went north along the eastern portion of Sarasa Field for a little while before something caught Nova Daisy's attention and made her stop. The rest of the Kruna stopped as well and looked around. Warra then picked up on what Daisy had noticed and gazed off to the group's right.

"Do you guys hear that?" asked Daisy. "It sounds like...water."

"A gushing waterfall, rather," said Warra. "But...that can't be right..."

The group of eight diverged off of the main route up Sarasa Field and headed east towards a familiar region past the northern tip of the Muda Mountain Range. After a short walk, they arrived at a great cliff overlooking the vast field where the northern Muda Kingdom met the southern Chai Kingdom. A great elliptical hole in the surface running a handful of miles in circumference occupied much of the land down below. Further up at a higher elevation, an expansive, raging river stretching most of the average diameter emptied into that same titanic chasm.

"What is this place," murmured Ramona. "I don't recall this being here..."

"You guys remember, right?" asked Athelstan. "This is the Colossal Hole. This was the Great Canyon before King Sarasa's final T-29 Remodeling Device ripped into the planet's surface and sunk the whole gorge down. All that's left of it is that massive, circular abyss...and whatever is flowing down into it."

"Yeah, but that's what I meant," said Ramona. "Last time we were here, there wasn't any river. And I think the hole was only like a little more than half the size it is now. The edges are all contorted and jagged too. This place has to have been tampered with."

"I bet that river's not natural either," said Warra. "Its breadth and flow upstream doesn't conform with the natural layout of the land around it."

"Oh, gosh," Daisy grunted with a grimace. "It smells like rust!"

"Iron," said Athelstan. "I'll bet that water running off into the Colossal Hole is loaded with iron oxide."

"But why would there be so much iron dissolved in that water in the first place?" asked Andrew. "It smells like someone's blood splattered all over the place and the stench is infused in the air..." He paused, a sickened undertone entering his voice when he spoke again. "Uh...wait... You don't think..."

"Something's coming!" Bowser said with urgency.

A dense laser shot through the air just above the Kruna's heads. When they turned to see the source, the Dark Sentinel robot was already speeding towards them on its several legs. In just seconds, it had them cornered and trapped at the edge of the cliff.

"Damn it, not again!" cried Neva.

"That thing moved quick!" exclaimed Bowser. "I didn't even get much of a chance to see it!"

"We're closed in!" hollered Daisy. "We need to jump!"

"Daisy!" Warra shouted, but it was too late. Daisy had already leapt off the cliff and dug her feet into the slopping cliff face to effectively skate down the descent.

Marut took out his Gust Boomerangs and leapt off too, activating his Pendant of Flight to soar down behind Daisy. Andrew leapt off and stuck his Shadow Blades on his feet in midair to ski down the slope. Neva shot a handful of ice arrows at the Dark Sentinel to disrupt its power flow and stall while Athelstan broke off the precipice the remaining Kruna stood on and sent it downhill in a controlled rockslide.

The slope down was long and steep. Andrew and Marut both shot past Daisy, though she saw the others coming down on the chunk of rock when she looked up and backflipped into the air to make a landing on their incoming platform. Though they thought they had gotten away from the Dark Sentinel, it surprised everyone when it fired a handful of lasers down to try and make their rock crash. Bowser and Ramona both countered with blasts of their respective elements, but through the embers and explosions that resulted, the Dark Sentinel flew down to chase. It spun its legs around and emitted magical energy from underneath its body as it pursued the Kruna on their sliding chunk of rock.

"It has no quit in it!" yelled Athelstan.

"The damn thing's possessed!" snapped Bowser. When he shot off the fiery torpedoes of his Tavado blast, the Dark Sentinel didn't even bother to try and evade. The robot took the whole of Bowser's attack head on, only slowing down for a moment as it plowed straight through it.

Flames eroding off its hull, the Dark Sentinel sped up and gained ground on the Kruna even as their speed down the sloping drop increased. Its claws snapped and clacked as electricity pulsed through and around the end of its tail. Daisy jumped at the Dark Sentinel and formed a Crystal Kick as she got close, but the robot wound up one of its claws and smacked her with added momentum down the slope. Marut angled through the air to catch Daisy as she dropped down to save her from a brutal, crushing landing.

Collectively, the Kruna were all just about two-thirds of the way down when the Dark Sentinel floated upwards and kicked its aerial speed into overdrive. Andrew and Marut both slowed up when they saw the robot fly over top of them on its way down to the bottom, but at that point, none of the Kruna could do anything to protect themselves. The Dark Sentinel already had a powerful laser beam charged when it perched itself at the bottom and fired it off the moment the Kruna all got too close together.

The robot's blast looked different from its other ones and radiated more power than any of the ones before. Its neon blue light tore into the rocky slope just in front of the Kruna and created a gargantuan explosion from underneath the stone surface. All eight of the Kruna went airborne in a daze and on a trajectory that sent them hurtling straight at the Colossal Hole. The Dark Sentinel turned and charged through the field, coming to a stop at the edge of the great abyss. It watched the eight elemental wielders fall down into the darkness of the Colossal Hole, then turned and marched away.

Semi-conscious, Daisy tried to make out the rapidly changing world around her and just barely got out a critical command. "MARUT! BLOW IN A GUST!"

Though it took a while for Marut to regain his bearings and respond, the Kruna of Air curved in a strong burst of air from above to push him and the others up against the wall of the Colossal Hole. They dropped deeper into the chasm before finally crashing several hundred yards onto a rocky platform jutting out from the side of the abyss. There they lay, sprawled out and knocked out as the stench and sounds of the Bloodfalls from the other side of the Colossal Hole raged on.


When Daisy awoke, she stirred in fatigued, stiff pain. She rolled over and pushed off the ground to get to her feet. Bowser and Athelstan were already up and trying awaken the others. They too looked sluggish and jerky in their movements.

Daisy looked across the almost overwhelming expanse of the Colossal Hole's width and depth. They had fallen a considerable distance, for the height of the edge above made scaling a skyscraper look easy. The sky brightened significantly from the way it looked earlier, though it still remained a dark crimson-purple meld. If anything, the lighting and illumination of the world around them improved, but not the brightness. Daisy assumed that it had to have been past what was supposed to be the time for sunrise had the Nirvana Barrier not been blocking the sun. The daytime brightness was relative though; not only because of the Nirvana Barrier's occlusive effects but because of how deep into the Colossal Hole the Kruna had fallen. Once Ramona got up, she took a peek off their ledge and saw nothing but darkness below.

On the other side of the Colossal Hole, the Bloodfalls emptied from the river above to flow into the endless pit. Strange sections of land acting as platforms that seemed to magically stay up without being bound to anything were scattered throughout the Colossal Hole. It seemed that most of the platforms to jump and travel on lined the circumferential wall of the abyss, and only a handful of definitive routes went across through the middle. By the time all the Kruna had regained consciousness and returned to their feet, it became evident that their route out was not going to be a pleasant one.

"That robot must've thought we were dead if it didn't chase us down here," said Warra, clutching just below his neck.

"It looks like all of us are just about out of power," said Bowser. "So we're just going to have to make a little platforming run."

"Pfft... 'Little,' he says," muttered Neva. "This is a gauntlet that we have to run!"

"A long, slow, convoluted ascent for sure," said Andrew.

"Well, unless you all wanna stay here on this lonely little ledge, we should get started," said Bowser.

"Mario and Luigi do this crap all the time," said Daisy. "I'm not about to sit here and say that we can't do something like this."

"Even though one wrong step or miscue means one super-long fall..." mumbled Ramona.

"Guys, I see the light..." said Marut, holding his head.

"No man! No! You do not see the light!" yelled Athelstan, grabbing and shaking Marut. "We've got so far to go! You can't just give out on us now!"

"I see the light too!" exclaimed Warra. "It's that blue pulse above the top of these red waterfalls!"

Sure enough, a blue shine hovered just over the Bloodfalls where the waters dropped off. Even at about a mile away, the Kruna could all see it. What it was though, they could not tell; although it had a certain feeling to it that gave off a very horrid mystique.

"Let's go check it out," said Daisy. "We're gonna have to cross over this extended, extreme obstacle course first..."

The route the Kruna had to take to get from their perch at the side of the Colossal Hole opposite the Bloodfalls to the falls themselves invoked a sense of emptiness. Platforms were just enough in abundance, but the unknown depth of the drop below and the simple, wide expanse of the vastness of the Colossal Hole within felt more than just barren. As they leapt up, over, across, and onto the various platforms suspended within the abyss, much of their thoughts included more wonders of what the rest of the world had turned into in their eight year absence. The magnitude of change elicited on everything they knew before could not be understated, and it weighed on their minds just as much as everyone else's whereabouts did.

Judging by what they had already seen in the Dark Sentinel and Kokoro, any enemy they come across would be faster, stronger, tougher, meaner, nastier, and grittier than anyone they'd faced before; especially considering that these potential adversaries would have had eight years to stew in this worldwide dystopia and to develop all kinds of new capacities and tactics to adapt and survive against the far more dangerous threats that could be lying anywhere in wait. And in the same vein, the areas, locales, civilizations, and landmarks they knew before could have more likely than not underwent drastic alterations as well; because just as the Kruna saw with the Great Canyon, all it takes is one significant enough event to trigger a wide-scale, cataclysmic change. Even though all they could do at this point was speculate about this new world around them, they still couldn't help but wonder; for even the meanings and roles of some places could have changed too. Each of them worked up anxiety over their hometowns and places that had been so significant to them in their travels together.

In the process of just getting to the platform near the middle of the abyss, the eight Kruna had exhausted well over ten minutes at least. Traversing the Colossal Hole had already proved to be a daunting task, and they still had a minimum of another half of platforming to go. The smells and sounds of the Bloodfalls became stronger and more vibrant the closer the Kruna got to them. It wasn't long before the stench's pungency elicited a visceral response from Ramona and then Marut, prompting Daisy to stop on a platform and glance back at the cries of disgust.

"There was a point where we needed to stop and we have clearly passed it," Ramona muttered, sick in the face.

"So let's keep going and see what happens!" snapped Bowser. "You can breathe without smelling, you know."

"Look, Ramona," said Daisy, pointing up at the Bloodfalls. "That blue light is still hovering at the top of these red-orange waterfalls! So if we're quick enough-"

"Go go go go go!" Marut screamed, dashing and leaping ahead. With his remarkable agility, he one-hopped a long string of platforms on his way to the ascent of ledges lining the left side of the Bloodfalls. The others sprang in a rush to keep up with him.

The closer they got to the Bloodfalls, the shinier, thicker, and murkier the red-orange flow of water appeared. Whenever any of them looked down, all they could see were the waters emptying into the abyss below. They could not point out any discernible splashes, pools, or anything that would hint to there being an end to the drop. As far as the origin of the Bloodfalls, no one could even begin to speculate about that. Neither Daisy nor Neva could recall there being any body of water nearby that could have facilitated the gallons upon gallons of fluid running off into the Colossal Hole now.

"Someone had to have ripped open one of the smaller rivers or lakes and then redirected it here," said Daisy. "How these waters became so contaminated, I don't know."

"I don't wanna say that this is all literally blood," said Athelstan. "So maybe this is pollution?"

"I think literal blood would've been a far more realistic guess," said Warra. "But the amount dropping here is ridiculous-"

"Hey!" Marut called out from ahead. "Speak up! These falls are loud!"

"Why don't you just wait up, air-head?!" Neva screamed.

Marut slowed his jumps to allow the others to catch up to him. They then made a steady, cautious move across the long stretch of remaining platforms laid out in front of them to finally reach the other side of the Colossal Hole. The Kruna leapt onto a ledge sticking out of the abyss wall just out of the reach of the Bloodfalls.

"Alright," said Daisy. "It's just a straight shot up now."

"It's nauseating to be this close to those waters," muttered Ramona.

"I have to agree," said Andrew. "They seem to be getting more viscous every time I look at them."

"Well just stay away from them," said Bowser. "You're likely to have a hard time getting out of them, and at this angle, that means a one-way trip downwards."

The Kruna only had an upward climb of ledges to have to jump on now, though several more rocky platforms suspended in midair hovered about nearby, and some of the ledges along the walls had considerable distance spaced between them. That meant they'd be forced to detour several times onto the platforms around and in front of the Bloodfalls in order to get higher up. As they ascended, many of the platforms they had to jump onto and travel across were close enough to the waters for them to get sprayed with stray mist.

In total, their climb just to make it most of the way up to the top of the Colossal Hole took them around and in front of the Bloodfalls four times. Strangely enough, all four times they ran in front of the Bloodfalls, their route led them across single, long, extended platforms from one end of the falls to the other end. Even more bizarre were the ornamental stone and metal arches jutting out over each of the path-like strips of rock, making each of the four hovering platforms seem like pseudo-tunnel bridges.

"Now this really isn't adding up," said Warra as the Kruna walked through the arches of the fourth long strip across the stretch of the Bloodfalls. "Arches are not natural formations; not like these, anyways."

"I can confirm this," said Athelstan. "Someone's been meddling around here..."

"I'm really getting a bad feeling about this," said Daisy. She looked intense and ready for something to leap at them from any direction.

Coming out from under the arches of the fourth "bridge," the Kruna ascended a considerable distance towards the top of the Colossal Hole with only a short distance and a few more bunches of platforms to go. The long trek from the other side of the enormous pit ate up a substantial amount of time and required a great deal of effort and tenacity. Now, as they leapt across the remaining batch of platforms and emerged to step foot on the surface again for the first time in a while, the blue light they saw from earlier looked as bright as ever. Soon, the brightness faded, and what took its place stunned and shocked the Kruna when the eight dashed several yards up the river feeding the Bloodfalls. The blue luminescence hovering further up just over the middle of the red river died out and gave way to a familiar woman in a white and pink dress.

"Peach?!" Bowser said in a gasp.

"Peach!" Daisy screamed at the Mushroom Kingdom princess.

Peach had her back turned to them as she stood with her feet oddly stable on top of the water. She didn't turn or move at either mention of her name. How she was able to stand on the flowing river eluded everyone's mind.

"What are you doing?!" Daisy screamed. "Get the hell out of the water!"

Peach still gave no response. The Kruna sprinted up along the river to get closer to Peach, Daisy and Bowser both screaming out for her name as they ran. Still, the princess paid neither of them any mind and kept facing away.

Just as the elemental wielders got close enough to Peach to make out the embellishments in her dress, she dropped straight into the water as if a trap door had opened up underneath her. Without any hesitation or questioning, Daisy leapt into the red river and swam out to where Peach fell in.

"Daisy, wait!" Warra shouted.

"I have to save my friend!" Daisy called back. She struggled trying to stabilize herself in the water, but she forced herself on anyways. For as poor of a swimmer as she was, she handled decently against the flow of the river. Even so, her teammates back on land could see her slowness and ungraceful difficulty with the waters. The thickness and viscosity of the river only served to make the swim that much more difficult. Daisy moved as fast as she could to where Peach had plummeted, trying hard to ignore the burning sensation of her muscles' fatigue in the dark, rusty river.

When Daisy got near to where Peach fell through, she then took a deep breath and braced herself to dive into the pungent depths below. It seemed the Kruna of Earth's efforts were for not, though. Daisy had only swam for a couple seconds underwater before she realized that Peach wasn't there or anywhere to be found. She looked in all directions trying to spot her, but saw her nowhere. Not able to hold her breath for long, the earth wielder kicked back up to pop her head out of the water.

"Daisy, get out of there!" Warra suddenly screamed. Marut and Neva became intensely animated in urging the Kruna of Earth to come back to the side of the river with haste.

Daisy didn't get why they wanted her out so quickly at first, but then she noticed the blue glare reflecting on the water around her. She looked up and saw the blue light from earlier hovering in the air with a double-bladed scythe now twirling around it. The light morphed itself to resemble a blue flame burning in a metal lantern.

Sensing an uptick in strength of the disturbing presence from earlier, Daisy flipped over and backpedaled her way through the water to the others to keep an eye on the entity above. Luckily for her, the floating scythe and lantern showed surprising patience and did not show hostility. The entity did follow Daisy though, and by the time she got out of the water and stood next to the other Kruna, it had gotten within a handful of yards away from them.

The eight elemental wielders found themselves absolutely speechless as Peach materialized in place of the blue light, her hands grasping both the scythe and the lantern. Peach's eye sockets were empty, and her expression looked both angry and depressed. Bowser and Ramona both went pale in the face.

"Peach? What happened?" asked Daisy. "Please, tell me what happened here! What happened to you?!"

An incredibly deep, reverberating laugh assaulted the Kruna's earddrums, followed by a growling grunt of an even lower tone. The Kruna watched as Peach's body morphed and transformed before their eyes into a smaller, more compact shape. Before long, instead of Peach floating in the air with the scythe and lantern, Geno hovered in her place.

"Wait, what..." said Bowser. "I don't understand...what is this?"

Geno then shrieked a demonic screech and faded away just as swiftly as he had taken Peach's place. The double-sided scythe and lantern remained visible, though now the scythe's blades glowed a bright blue to match the blue lantern fire. With wicked rotation, the scythe raised higher and spun with great speed to create a reverse vortex effect in the air. Just a quick four-second burst of the air maneuver caused a great disturbance in the red river and forced the Kruna back and away from the body of water. An angry roar followed with the same intonation as the laugh frommoments ago.

"No..." murmured Daisy. "It's way too obvious now. That's not Peach...and that's not Geno either!"

"That's something else entirely!" Andrew exclaimed, charging an erratic burst of shadow in his outstretched hand. It may have been one of the weakest orbs of dark energy he had ever made, and the Kruna each expected like results if they tried to use their elemental powers in any capacity with their fatigue. None of them felt even remotely ready for a battle of any sort, especially not against an entity that has already displayed some potentially formidable abilities.

Fortunately for them, the scythe and lantern drifted away and headed upstream, northbound in the direction of the Chai Kingdom. Andrew dismissed his glaring shadow burst and took a deep, stressed breath. The Kruna looked to the north and saw the blue illumination of the scythe and lantern fade from view as it moved further away.

Daisy looked on, spooked and disturbed by the illusions of Peach and Geno. With so many questions and possible implications already up in the air, a sense of dread filled the Kruna of Earth over the Mushroom Kingdom and its fate. Thoughts on the state of both the nation and the inhabitants incited anxiety in all the Kruna, but not quite as much as Daisy. A sort of numbness overtook her for a brief moment that made her question her consciousness.

Resigning to the fact that too much flooded her mind at that moment, Daisy didn't dwell on anything and just focused on taking steps towards making any sort of progress or getting any sort of information on this new world. She looked just offset to the left of the direction the entity with the scythe and lantern had flown in and motioned to the other Kruna. With minimal verbiage spoken, they all followed as she lead them north into Chai Kingdom territory.