CHAPTER 7: PURIFICATION

CHAPTER 7: PURIFICATION

Within an underworld full of creatures, there were but two people; an angel named Toodles and a boy named Pit. The two of them began their ascension from the deepest pit by climbing a giant set of stairs. There were collapsed and ruined pillars on each side of them.

The boy Pit asked the angel, "Can you fly yet?"

The angel humbly tried to flap its wings slowly, but could not fly. The angel shook its blonde mop of a head left to right with a grimace on its face. Toodles then uttered, "Angels fear to fly here. There is no telling what we would bump into."

In a world of darkness, the angel's body was the only light. The torches had burnt out eons before when the world was carved by Medusa. This was her realm that she had created with her twisted mind.

Pit looked to the giant staircase to see that it not only climbed upward, but then it arched over the heads of the pair and looped upside down. It was impossible for them to climb, so they were forced to find an alternate way when the stairs began to loop.

As they worked their way upward, Toodles uttered, "You were called upon to save Palutena." The angel hoisted itself up a black rock and then added, "You must sacrifice everything else to save her."

Pit never refused the duty to save Palutena, when he asked the angel, "How am I supposed to do that? My father was the best warrior the mortal world had and now he is under control of that heartless snake-clops Medusa."

Toodles continued to climb behind Pit and explained, "You're the only one left and you have to be the one to save her."

Pit's ascension stopped as he looked down at the luminescent angel. He asked, "What do you mean the only one?"

The angel elaborated, "The Centurions have all been turned to stone and when I returned to Palutena's palace, the other angels had all been turned to harpies."

In the mind of Toodles, it remembered flying into the palace. That is where he found Medusa boasting her power. She commanded, "These darlings will now become the scourge of men. They will now lure them in to their doom with tales of riches and bait them with their bodies."

The voice of Toodles overcame its memories, "The sheets fell off their bodies to reveal hideous talons for feet and fangs beneath their lips. They're ravenous."

Pit continued to climb and sweat as he toted his wings of wax and quiver with him. He wondered, "How can a mortal beat a goddess?"

"They can't," said Toodles, only to add, "She can only be purified of evil, just as she can become corrupted and wicked from goodness."

The boy said to the angel, "I am no cleric. I have no rod or staff to cleanse a soul. The most I have is a weekly bath!"

Toodles retorted, "You are pure of heart, and that is one of the things needed to purify her. Not even any of the Centurions could do that. Their souls have all been tainted and soiled from battle."

Pit wondered, "What of Palutena? Why didn't she simply cleanse her sister's soul?"

"Because she too is impure," said Toodles with a chuckle, before it added, "She tests the souls of mortals just as Medusa does. Palutena dries their crops and makes them thirst for water. The light she shines upon the over world can kill mortals just as anything else, but the light is slower, so her corruption is far slower than Medusa's."

The boy continued to climb the rock ledges as he listened. They were both completely oblivious to the fact that there were still creatures that looked upon them from the darkness. Red tentacles clung to the ceilings high above them.

Meanwhile, in Palutena's palace, Medusa had her working eye closed. Over her missing eye was a draped piece of white cloth. Her snakes hissed next to her hideous face.

She meditated and could see everything that her mooneyes of the underworld could see. In the darkness she could see Pit and Toodles. Her anger rose as she watched their escape.

Soon enough her mouth slowly opened to reveal her twin fangs. Her forked tongue protruded from her mouth and she hissed in anger.

Toodles told Pit, "There are three sacred treasures that you would need."

Pit quickly wondered, "To purify her?"

"To stay alive," exclaimed Toodles, before it added, "The first is a mirrored shield to protect you from the gaze of Medusa. Second is an arrow of light to strike the darkness from her. Finally is a pair of wings from a Pegasus."

As the two continued their climb, Toodles continued, "Each is hidden in a fortress; the fortress of the angels in the sky, the fortress of mortals in the over world and the fortress of demons here in the underworld."

Pit told Toodles, "Lead the way."

However, Toodles had another idea, "I'm just here to deliver the message. You're the one that has to go carry it out. It's your destiny."

After hearing that, Pit sat on a ledge and looked back into the abyss he had just crawled from. He turned his head to look at the brightly lit angel. "If that is what Palutena wants," he said, only to hear Toodles retort, "You think Palutena sent me?"

Pit uttered, "Who else would?"

Toodles coyly asked, "I'm asking you; who else would?" It then added as it pointed with a finger upward, "Get going Icarus."

The boy replied, "Don't call me that." He then turned and began to climb up the rock as the angel lounged on the ledge.

Pit's arm then grabbed the angel's toga and pulled it up. Pit stated, "Come on. I need a light!"

Medusa could see everything and she hissed a low tone, "Attack."

From the ceiling came four creatures. Their red tentacles released the ceiling and they streamed through the air down to Pit. The first three were dodged and the third bounced off of the rock wall before it was shot by an arrow from Pit.

In the light the two of them could see they were attacked by large eyes that could blink with a freakish red membrane. They had no body or face, just four short tentacles.

As the fourth mooneye whizzed by it snatched Toodles from the rock with its tentacles. The angel cried out, "Help me Icarus!"

The angel was no match for the large eye that zoomed back toward the ceiling of the chamber. Pit could see the angel's light growing smaller and smaller, so he took aim with his bow.

With the release of the bow string, Pit sent a copper arrow into the air after them. Fortunately for both the mooneye and Toodles, the arrow missed and struck a stalactite.

The pointed hunk of rock that draped from the ceiling began to shudder and tremble unnoticed to the mono eye. Then from out of the sky, the mooneye was pierced by stone and driven through the cavern toward the bottom.

Toodles was still on the grasp of the tentacles and taken with the mooneye to its final resting place. Pit's gaze was on the stalactite as he had another arrow ready. He quickly launched the arrow, and then sent a second one toward the stalactite.

The first arrow speared a tentacle of the mooneye and the second arrow lanced the stalactite, causing it to whirl end over end. Toodles was flung from the grasp of the dead mooneye as more of the eyes flew toward Pit.

Toodles was flung, but not nearly far enough to reach the rock wall of the cavern. Risking his life, Pit leapt out from off of the wall and grabbed onto Toodles with his arm wrapped around the angel's body.

As they plunged through the air, Toodles screamed, "Did you think about this before you did it?"

The words, "Uh no," came from Pit's mouth as Toodles continued to scream, "Then why did you do it?"

They continued to plunge as they screamed out of fright. They went deeper and deeper back into the abyss that they had just crawled out of, but then they were snatched from death by a pair of mooneyes.

The terrifying eye that had a grasp on Pit looked down upon him as it sailed upward to the top of the cavern where it had come from. Toodles was carried away as well, but to a different arrow. Each one of Pit's limbs were held by a tentacle of the mono eye as Pit screamed in terror at how hideous the eye was.

The eye merely blinked and continued to look back at Pit. The mooneye felt no fear or had no expression of glee; it was strangely devoid of emotion, probably because it had no face to show emotion.

Higher and higher they went, until Pit and Toodles were so far apart that there was no light for Pit to see. There were only slimy tentacles that gripped Pit's limbs. Little did Pit know that he was in a den of the mooneyes. The ceiling of that particular cavern is where they cultivate, socialize and feed through their tentacles.

He was surrounded by dozens of them that all looked at him in the darkness. Pit struggled and screamed out, "This is the weirdest thing ever!" If he dared fight back against the tentacles he would just plummet from a ceiling so high that it may as well have been the sky itself.

Suddenly Pits screams subsided as he heard harp music. The sounds gently came his way and filled the entire cavern. Beautiful and harmonious strums that were absolutely soothing and told Pit there was no need to worry.

Pit was in a daze, and he quietly wondered in his mind, "Is this a dream? Are these things playing the harp?" They did have tentacles after all, so they could play instruments.

Then Pit's head rolled to the side and he looked over to see a bright light. It was a ball of luminescent light that began to light up the ceiling of the cavern to reveal dozens of mooneyes.

The eyes merely watched the ball of light and their irises adjusted to the brightness. Pit however tried to cover his eyes from the luminescence. It was too bright for a boy that was in the dark for nearly a minute.

The strums grew louder as they got closer. Pit was forced to wonder who was making the strums. He tried to look, and despite how bright the light was, his eyes got used to it once again.

It was Toodles on the harp; the angel was there flapping its wings and each of the monoeyes began to tremble and wobble as they clung to the ceiling. The harp continued to play beautiful and charming music that was obviously making the mooneyes gyrate and wobble to the sounds.

Eventually Toodles was right next to the mooneye that held Pit in its grasp. The mooneye was pulsating, until it popped; not into a puddle of goop or jelly, but it popped like a balloon with a mallet in it.

Pit grabbed the mallet and began to plummet. The other mooneyes began to pop like balloons as well revealing sturdy mallets inside of them. It was like a celebration with the red balloons popping all around them.

Once they had all ruptured, Toodles zoomed through the air down to save Pit. However, the little angel was too late. Even though Toodles fell with all of its might with its blonde mopped head forming a rounded bullet, Toodles was no match for gravity.

Pit hit the ground with an "umph!" His body was then rolled like a rag doll down a slight slope and disappeared into a doorway. An iron door slammed shut with Toodles on the outside.

The angel tried to open the door and screamed out, "Come on Icarus! Open the door it's scary out here!" However scary it was outside of the door, Pit was the one worse off inside of the room.

Pit stood up groggy and in a daze from his fall and the harp music. He checked over his body and his wings. He looked below his toga and said, "Legs; check." He dusted off his arms, "Arms; check." Then he felt his neck, "Head; still screwed on."

He was too busy checking himself to notice the fact that there were more foes lurking inside of the door. They mysteriously began to appear one after another.

Pit checked his wings, "Still there." Then when Pit looked around the room, he saw the shadows of foes inside of the room with him. He reached to his side and noticed that something was missing as he said, "Bow; missing."