Chapter 9a. Medusa's Final Battle (Part 1)

The Three Sacred Treasures had been gathered, Medusa's Commanders had been slain, and the Underworld Key had been secured from Thanatos. Everything was ready for Pit and Riku to take the fight straight to Medusa herself. Palutena helped to secure the Three Sacred Treasures on Pit's body back in Skyworld, and once that was done him and Riku were able to head out the magical door to go straight for Medusa's home base.

Pit was now adorned with golden armored across his body, from winged grieves to a warrior's helmet. In his left hand was a golden bow with a series of glowing feathers attacking as the string, and in his other hand was a reflective mirror shield. The red sky was thick with storm clouds, and a couple bolts of lightning strung between the clouds as Pit and Riku dived straight towards the ground. Riku complimented Pit with "You're looking confident today."

"I guess you're ready for the final battle, Pit?" Palutena asks in turn, and Pit pumps his shielded arm forward and exclaims "It's now or never!" As swarms of Underworld Army soldiers rise up through the clouds, Pit rapid-fires arrows of gold from his bow, all of them piercing through the soldiers like they were nothing. The young angel then looks back at his glowing wings and comments "Lady Palutena, isn't the Pegasus Wings and the Power of Flight together kind of overkill?"

"The Pegasus Wings are worn down from old age, so I kept them here for now. Who knows if you might need them later." Palutena notes, as Pit and Riku continue to fire off their projectiles at the undying swarms of monsters coming their way. "The Underworld Army is going all-out here!" Pit exclaims in a somewhat worried tone of voice, and the goddess of light mentions "Medusa isn't going to pull any punches on you Pit. You and Riku need to be careful."

"We'll be fine Palutena. If Pit stopped her before, she's not going to win now." Riku says to reassure her, but Palutena felt the need to say anyways "You can never be too sure, especially against the Queen of the Underworld. Anyways, the ravine leading to the Underworld is coming up shortly, so brace yourselves!" Sure enough, Pit and Riku finally make it through the clouds, plummeting towards a single dark ravine out in the middle of nowhere.

Inside this ravine, Palutena quietly advises "Careful, you'll be entering Shootfly territory Pit. One shot from your bow and they'll wake up." Pit turns around and glances at the caverns on both sides of the ravine, finding a series of human-sized blue bats hanging upside from the ceilings. They were dozing off for now, but with Palutena's advice and a heavy amount of cautious breaths Pit was able to make it through their territory.

"Whew, now back to shooting things up!" Pit lets out a sigh of relief and then turns forward as the ravine starts to become a tunnel with dark violet crystals, at which point the young angel reaches into his toga and pulls out the crystal, wondering if it would actually work before he puts it away from safe-keeping. Riku then draws back a bit while commenting "Hold up, something's coming up ahead."

Pit glances forward and sees a series of devilish skulls surrounding by an equally menacing aura. Upon noticing Pit they open their mouths and let out a shriek as a strange old time melody begins to play in the area. "Figures Medusa would send out her Ornes at this point. Remember Pit-" "One touch will finish me. I remember Lady Palutena." Pit interrupts his goddess' sentence with confidence and then pulls back on the bow in his hand, firing off a large golden arrow at the swarm of Ornes.

The Ornes are burned straight through by the arrow, their bodies vanishing in a spectacle of bright lights as Pit swings his bow and says "And that's the end of that!" Palutena mentions with hopeful delight "So the Three Sacred Treasures still work, that's great to hear." The tunnel then flashes with a few rings of white light, and the solid walls that the crystals were held inside of vanish to leave a black void in the area.

Pit then feels something in his toga and pulls out Thanatos' gem, which was now shining brightly as a white rift opened up at the end of this vortex of crystals. The rift had two dark rings inside of it that made it look like an eye peering towards the two heroes, but as Pit's heart thumped against his chest he and Riku went through the "pupil" of this rift. The young angel exclaimed out a surprised "Whoooaaa!" as he feels himself being pulled into another dimension.

While the transition to the Underworld was occurring, Riku sensed another presence approaching from behind and glanced back to see a particular flicker of purple light flying towards them. But knowing what it was, Riku didn't say anything to Palutena. The push through the gate of the Underworld ends with relative ease, and the two heroes were finally at Medusa's home realm. As expected, the realm felt vacant of all life upon entering.

The ground was red and brown, dried up and devoid of any vibrant plant life. The few trees that were here are rotten and black, and though the sky had some stars they weren't as prominent as the hellish sun-like body in the distance that bathed most of the atmosphere in crimson. Naturally, the Underworld Army returned in full force, and Pit focused back on the skies in front of him while firing off more golden arrows from his bow.

"Now we're in the Underworld Army's home world. They may be SLIGHTLY more powerful than before." Palutena sounded very unconcerned as she mentioned this bit of information to Riku and Pit, and the young angel nods his head and says "Home or away, I always play to win!" "But in your past adventures, the Underworld was where you died the most, right?" Palutena mentions, causing Riku's attention to perk.

"Oh, absolutely. The difficulty level was just brutal. I'll brace for the worst!" Pit starts off feeling a bit embarrassed, but then goes into full-blown confidence a few seconds later. Riku then asks "Wait a minute, you've died before?" Pit glances over at him while firing off more arrows, mentioning in a nonchalant tone of voice "Yeah, what of it?"

"Pit, Riku's just puzzled because death is probably a one-time thing for him and other worlds." Palutena mentions, and Pit says in a surprised tone of voice "Really? Huh…" Riku then goes on to explain "Well that's not entirely true. I can bring one person back to life, but it really tired me out. And I know there are means to revive people on the other worlds I've been to…But you seem to do things differently, Palutena."

"Correct. I can only bring back people who've been blessed by my powers, meaning Pit and the Centurions. Thankfully, I haven't had to do that to for Pit so far." Palutena mentions, followed by Pit rubbing the back of his head and saying "Thank goodness for that." "It's pretty interesting learning how different worlds operate. Speaking of learning though, there's something I've been trying to avoid asking until now…"

"Hmm, what is it Riku?" Pit was curious to know what the teenage Overlord had to say, and Riku mentions rather quickly "Palutena, even if you blessed the Three Sacred Treasures, would Dark Pit still be able to use them, since he's fundamentally Pit save for his aggressive nature?" This garnered a provocative murmur of thought from the goddess of light, and while she was trying to think that through Pit mentioned "Come to think about it, Pittoo said he was going to fight Medusa's forces, right? Guess he'll miss out on that now."

"To answer your question Riku, I'd assume he would be able to use the Three Sacred Treasures…If I ever put them in his possession. There's no way that's happening now." Palutena was blunt in her reasoning, but that was only fair after the way Dark Pit slighted her. Riku nodded his hand out of an understanding for the explanation, and then looks forward as Pit seems to be having a tough time shooting through these black shielded enemies with his arrows.

"Pit, haven't you forgotten that the backs of Boogities resist everything, even the Arrows of Light?" Palutena said in a rather humored tone of voice as she sees the young angel pull back and forth on the invisible string of his bow rather rapidly. "I haven't, but they'll have to let their guard down sometime!" Pit responds with, and after a few seconds of futile shots a streak of purple pierces right through all three Boogities to destroy them all instantly.

Pit's thrown off-guard, naturally, only for Dark Pit to make his presence known in front of him a few seconds later. The young angel discarded his surprise and said "Oh hey Pittoo, we were just talking about you!" Dark Pit naturally glanced back at him with a somewhat peeved looking on his face as he asked "What did you just call me?"

"…Say wait a minute, what are you doing here?" Pit asked after realizing how things didn't quite add up. Dark Pit arrogantly boasted "The same thing you're doing. Pummeling Underworld fools. I'm just doing a better job than you are at it." Dark Pit then glances back and notices Riku flying around, and as the two share a brief glance the black angel twinges in pain. He then looks back on ahead and continues to fly forward, with Pit further elaborating "Err, what I meant to say was, how did you get here? We had the only key to the Underworld."

"I'm pretty certain he was tailing us Pit. Maybe he realized you would need his help to stop Medusa." Palutena says in a humored tone of voice, and Dark Pit calmly explains "You don't have the only key to the Underworld. Remember? I have Pandora's powers, ergo, a key of my own." "But Thanatos told us that he had the only key to the Underworld, and that Pandora specifically wasn't chosen to guard it." Pit was being surprisingly perceptive about Dark Pit's explanation, which only served to infuriate the black angel.

"Hmm, so that could only mean that I was right, isn't that so, Pittoo?" Palutena taunts Dark Pit for his motives in being hear, but the black angel coolly played things off by saying in a straightforward tone of voice "Don't make me laugh. Now, enough talky talk. There's fight to be done! I'm out of here!" Dark Pit then flies on ahead of the others as a red acid rain begins to fall across the Underworld in the form of pencil thin streams.

As Dark Pit leaves, Pit mentions "Thanks for showing up Pittoo, but I can handle things on my own." The young angel didn't seem at all insulted by his dark self's behavior this time, even if his emotions didn't portray that. Palutena then says "You're no on your own, Pit. You have me." Pit wanted to make sure the goddess of light didn't misinterpret what he saying by exclaiming "Of course! What would I do without you?"

As Pit and Riku glide over a rippling river of red water coming from a tall mountain, Riku mentions "And I'm here too Pit. If anything, and I mean ANYTHING goes wrong against Medusa, I can ensure you that I will have your back." "Thanks Riku, that really means a lot to hear that." Pit states with the utmost honesty in his voice as he glances back at the teenage Overlord and smiles. Moments later, the two heroes are ascending rapidly up the side of the mountain, whose dark crimson expanse is soon engulfed by a rather foreboding darkness.

Pit is on his guard, something that prevents him from being shocked as Medusa suddenly appears from the darkness. She was a titanic, human-like being with pale skin, serpentine eyes, snaky hair, a purple dress that extends from a clip on her shoulders down to the bottom of her legs, and a staff filled with demonic attachments…But though she could be described in those words, the one you couldn't use for her was "real".

In the end, the Medusa Pit and Riku saw before them was a projection, as evidenced by the pale, wavy aura around her body. She said in her usual, sultry tone of voice as she pulled back from the two heroes "So, you've made it this far." "Prepare to taste defeat, Medusa!" Pit exclaims bravely, and with a slow chuckle the goddess of darkness said "Now isn't that just…precious."

The projection sways her body forward, extending her wrinkled right claw out while mentioning "It must be all that hot air that keeps you flying. You are darling. But you will need more than bluster to defeat me!" Pit angrily proclaimed "This isn't bluster! In the name of the goddess of light, I will defeat you!" Medusa's projection then began to pull back, the darkness fading away to reveal Medusa's castle, a gargantuan and twisted mess of a building whose entrance was led into by a path filled with bony arches.

But before Pit and Riku could go fight Medusa, one last obstacle began to ascend in front of them both. It was a white, bizarrely mechanical creature with four glowing orange lights on it's thick wings, a pointed abdomen, a glowing central eye, and four small dark-green wings extended on both sides of it's body. It erected a dark barrier around the entire Underworld Castle and immediately began firing upon Pit and Riku.

Lasers, yellow bullets, energy shields and some mines were thrown around in a heavy bombardment to make things difficult for his two foes. "Whoa, what is this thing?!" Pit exclaims as he weaves around the projectiles and fires arrows at the machine. "It's the Underworld Gatekeeper, Medusa's strongest line of defense! Destroy it and you'll be able to enter the castle!" Palutena explains hastily.

"He's not exactly giving me much breathing room Lady Palutena!" Pit exclaims as he frantically finds himself alternating between the Mirror Shield and Arrows of Light to keep himself from being hit. Even Riku was having a difficult time keeping himself safe, as even with how frequently he swung his sword out some of the bullets managed to strike him. Though it was minor damage for the time being, Riku briefly considered going into his Light form to give him the speed advantage before the damage added up.

"Ugh, it's so annoying!" Pit exclaims as he rapidly fires arrows into the gatekeeper's head, with the creature seeming to take no damage no matter how many shots strike it. Then, in a rather unconventional but surprisingly effective move, Dark Pit dive kicks straight into the left side of the Underworld Gatekeeper's head from out of nowhere, using his strength to drag the machine right out of the sky and straight into the ground, crunching the head apart in the process.

The barrier surrounding the castle immediately goes down much to Pit's surprise, and as the Underworld Gatekeeper malfunctions Dark Pit rises back up with his arms arrogantly folded, proclaiming to the two heroes that were wasting their time "And THAT'S how you take out a boss!" Palutena points out "Heh, just for future reference, drop kicking isn't the most effective of tactics."

Dark Pit gestures towards the castle with his fist and proclaims "Get a move on before more defenses show up!" "He's right. We should get going, even if it means taking orders from HIM." Palutena mentioned, and as she guided Pit towards the entrance of the castle the young angel glanced at his counterpart and said "Thanks Pittoo" in a very appreciative tone of voice.

"Will you PLEASE stop calling me that?" Dark Pit asks in a rather blunt and insulted tone of voice before he flies away from the heroes to deal with the approaching Underworld Army. "Pit, Riku, get ready to go in!" Palutena exclaims as a forewarning, and as the teenage Overlord flies beside the young angel the two of them rocket straight towards the front doors of the castle at the very top of the long, winding staircase.

This triumphant charge into Medusa's castle drops Pit and Riku into a room that had three passages and three statues standing in front of them that surrounded a square hot spring. Pit skids along the ground and stops at the edge of the hot spring, looking around at the statues to see that they were based on three familiar faces. Pandora and Hewdraw were obvious, but the last statue was based on a large three-headed dog named Twinbellows, a creature that Riku hadn't encountered directly on this world.

"Welcome to my castle, Pit. But you have much to do before you can even hope to reach me." Medusa gives a taunting greeting to the young angel, ignoring the teenage Overlord in the process. Pit grit his teeth for a moment, but when the goddess of darkness doesn't say anything else he calms down and asks "Lady Palutena, what's up with these statues?"

"It seems to be some sort of defense system. You're probably going to have to go through those doors to continue onward." Palutena explains, but Pit decides to ask "But they look exactly like Medusa's commanders, could it be that she…" "Brought them back? Doubtful, Pandora's powers are still in Pittoo, meaning she wouldn't be able to be revived. But carbon copies aren't out of the question."

"Then we'll have to face all three of them again. Fair enough, I guess we can split up then." Pit says as he turns to face Riku. The teenage Overlord nodded his head in agreement of the plan but then gestured towards the door the Twinbellows statue was guarding and said "I'll take that door. You fight Hewdraw, and then we'll meet back here and face Pandora."

"Sounds good. I'll see you in a bit then." Pit comments in a serious and confident tone of voice, and then he turns around and runs straight for the door where the Hewdraw statue was pointed towards. Riku takes one glance at the young angel and then moves for the door in front of the Twinbellows statue.

Upon making his way through the dark passage, Riku finds himself being sent to another area entirely. The transition was rather smooth but tinged with Medusa's dark energies, sending a slight chill down Riku's spine as he cautiously looks around. Emerging from the transition, Riku finds himself at the center of an ancient town that was shrouded in the pale darkness of the Underworld.

This was undoubtedly a replica of the first town Pit went to on his adventure that was created by Medusa to suit her purposes, so the teenage Overlord saw fit to draw his sword and glance around between and above the buildings. He knew better than to assume that he was not in danger, as an ambush from a particularly strong enemy like an Orne or Reaper would be likely to damage him if he didn't fight back.

"Come to think about it…Could an Orne kill me instantly?" Riku didn't know the answer to this question, and that was what made him feel a tiny bit worried as he began to advance through this replicated town. It was lucky for him that the Orne made it's presence known with a unique tune, otherwise he'd be feeling slightly paranoid.

Making his way through the town, Riku took down whatever Underworld soldiers he could see before him, having no difficulty due to having the element of surprise on his side against his foes…Admittedly, the difference in strength did help a bit. After a while, Riku ends up in a curved corridor between a series of buildings, where Medusa ends up speaking to him from afar "Well well, you're managing to hold your own. As expected from the infamous Elemental Overlord."

"Unless you have something interesting to say Medusa, I'm not going to speak to you." Riku comments after taking a brief glance towards the sky out of annoyance. "What a sharp tongue you have. Such a pity you are wasting your talents helping out Palutena. As the Elemental Overlord, you are supposed to deal with the wrongs of the universe, so it'd make more sense for you to deal with Palutena for the injustices she committed upon me."

"What Palutena did was punish you for rising up against the humans. And now you're expecting me, a human, to help YOU out?" Riku was slightly disbelieved that the goddess of darkness would try such a foolish tactic, but Medusa attempts to rationalize this by stating "Please…You discarded the right to be called a human the moment you accepted the role as Elemental Overlord. You are a deity, just like Palutena and myself." "I never accepted the role. The powers were given to me at birth. Even if that wasn't the case, I refuse to ever classify myself as a god." Riku's response was calm yet blunt, and this merely irritated Medusa.

"…Hmph, the label you give yourself doesn't change what the rest of the universe is supposed to perceive you as. All you are doing is being humble at that point. Very well then…If you refuse to help me destroy Palutena and her little pet angel, then I will bring my full power upon you. I do not even care that I will be destroying the 'higher-ups' precious little play toy." With that last remark garnering a brief but surprised reaction from Riku, Medusa ends their little conversation there.

After making it through the corridor that he had slowly been advancing through, Riku comments "…So she knows about them as well. Hmmm, it makes sense, considering Palutena's own knowledge." But trying to pry information from Medusa about those 'higher-ups' would be an effort in futility, so Riku just kept that information in the back of his head as he ascended the long staircase nearby and made his way for the grandiose coliseum at the top.

Once inside, Riku finds the three-headed Twinbellows in all of his flaming glory perched with all legs on the stands of the coliseum. The beast lets out a roar from all mouths and then leaps down to the arena, the impact of all four blazing claws sending out a shockwave that disrupts the ground but does nothing to faze Riku. The teenage Overlord holds his arm up to draw his sword in front of his face, but then decides to dispel it while spreading his fingers out and stringing together bits of water between them.

As Twinbellows lunges at Riku, the teenage Overlord swipes his hand towards the clouds above and sends a wave of water straight at them. "Though the Underworld's environment has different properties…" Riku murmurs before he leaps into the air at the exact moment the three-headed dog's claw would've crushed him. While he was airborne, the teenage Overlord glanced down at the beast and then raised his right hand towards the sky.

The water he placed within the clouds has multiplied exponentially, and it all comes down from the sky in the a gushing cylindrical torrent. Twinbellows is engulfed by this water, dousing all of his flames and leaving a red, wet, and undignified dog standing below Riku. The teenage Overlord then claps his hands together, conducting electricity from the clouds that comes down swiftly in the form of a gigantic thunderbolt.

Twinbellows stood no chance as the thunderbolt connected with his damp body and makes him disintegrate into nothingness once more while the beast lets out a deathly roar. Riku then lands on the ground and claps his hands together while saying "Medusa, you really don't stand a chance…" He was subdued with his remark, and a few seconds later the teenage Overlord finds himself being teleported back to the central area. Unsurprisingly, Pit was there relaxing in the hot springs, and the statues for the Hewdraw and Twinbellows had been shattered.

"Oh hey Riku, you finally made it back! I'm surprised Twinbellows took you so long to defeat." Pit spoke rather casually about Riku's return, and the teenage Overlord said in a puzzled tone "Wait, it took me a while? …Guess Medusa held me up more than I thought. Well it doesn't matter, now we can go fight Pandora's copy." "Umm, Riku, you might want to look to the left real quick." Palutena comments.

The teenage Overlord does so, and to his surprise finds that Pandora's statue has also been shattered. He looks back at Pit and says "You already took care of her as well?" The young angel lifts himself up from the hot springs and stretches while commenting "It wasn't that hard with the Three Sacred Treasures…I kind of have to wonder why Medusa even bothered." "At this point I wonder why I did as well. Well, it matters not, you've earned the right to continue through my castle." Medusa explains from afar.

Glancing around in a puzzled manner, Pit asks "Umm, where do I go from here?" Palutena has to answer in a rather odd manner "Just head back to the entrance, it's transformed into a path through the rest of the castle." The young angel naturally replies with a wide-eyed expression as he turns towards the entrance "Seriously? That sounds really counter-intuitive."

"Medusa's castle is just as twisted as she is. Makes sense to me." Riku says bluntly as he stands beside Pit. "You'll run out of your little arrogant remarks once I snuff the life of your soul from your body, that I can assure you, Elemental Overlord." Medusa says with callous intent in her voice, and with arms swung out beside him Pit exclaims "We'll see about that! We're coming for you Medusa, so get ready!" With a vigorous proclamation from the young angel, he and Riku run straight for the staircase leading to the new entrance to Medusa's inner castle…

Next Time: Medusa's Defeat