Mario, Toad, and the Princess immediately raced into the portal. There was no time to lose. Once they were through, they found themselves on a cliffside, where gears, computer chips, and other odds and ends were laying about. A path led to a large peak in the distance.

"That must be Grim Peak," the Princess said.

"So what are we waiting for?" Toad asked. "Let's go! You take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll be at Grim Peak before ya!"

Toad started off, but ended up coming face to face with a wall of lightning. He immediately screamed, and retreated. Luckily, he wasn't hurt.

"Wow, that'll really shock it to you!" Mario shouted.

"We'll never get past that without being barbecued," Toad said.

"There must be something here that will help us get rid of the lightning wall," the Princess said.

"Boy, am I sure glad Luigi dropped Eli's book earlier," Mario said, opening the book and turning the pages. "Here's something we can use! We can use the wreckage around here to build a lightning rod! Help me gather up this junk and we'll get to work!"

Mario, Toad, and the Princess immediately began picking up the gears and other items that were scattered on the cliffside. Once they got everything together, Mario put them into the control panel, and turned it on. All of the lightning was soon attracted to the lightning rod that sat next to the control panel, clearing the way.

"Last one to Grim Peak is a soggy meatball sandwich!" Mario called.

However, before our heroes could even take one step forward, something came up from under the ground. It was three very large energy elementals, and they didn't look very friendly.

"Hey!" one shouted. "What do you think you're doing, huh? You've got some nerve!"

"Sorry, fellas," Mario said. "We can't stay and talk now. We've got to pass through."

"You want to pass?" the second energy elemental asked. "You shouldn't be messing about here, you should be fighting to the bitter end! I guess that's not your strong point, is it, fatso?"

"I wouldn't under estimate Mario if I were you, fellas!" Toad shouted. "He's beaten his share of fire elementals, and you guys might end up as casualties if you're not careful!"

"Oh, a wise guy, huh?" the third energy elemental said. "You're asking for a serious beating, Tubby! Get him, boys!"

"Aahhh!" Toad shouted, and he and the Princess ducked out of sight, since they didn't have anything to fight with.

Mario glared at the electricity charged trio, then closed his eyes, and concentrated as hard as he could. Water seemed to be the best choice for this, since everyone knows water and electricity don't mix. Once he was concentrating on the element he wanted, he held up his hand, and a blast of water sailed out of it, dousing the elementals. In a flash of sparks, the elementals shorted out, and disappeared.

"That should take care of them," Mario said. "Come on, you two! We've got to find the Great Dragon!"

"I hope he's a friendly dragon," the Princess said, nervously, and she, Toad, and Mario went down the path to Grim Peak.

Once the trio arrived at Grim Peak, they saw a cave, and a very familiar looking Earth Knight. He was cowering in front of the cave's entrance, completely petrified.

"Hey, Sir Stone!" Mario shouted. "What are you doing here?"

The Earth Knight's only answer was a string of incoherent babbling.

"Forget it, Mario," Toad said. "He's not gonna be able to help us much as he is now. Come on, let's forget about him and get into the cave."

"I'd rather not," the Princess said. "It's too dark to see in there."

"Let's see what the book has to say," Mario said, taking out Eli's book, and turning the pages. "Here we go! The Wand of Light! We'll need ten bones, eight feathers, two yellow stones, and the skull of a six horned beast."

"I've got that covered," Toad said, picking up a skull with six horns that was laying behind the Earth Knight.

"Something tells me the dragon isn't fond of guests," the Princess said, picking up a bone she found laying near a ribcage of some sort of large animal she couldn't identify.

"Let's look for the other stuff," Mario said. "And hurry!"

Toad and the Princess nodded, and the trio immediately got to work. Once they had everything, Mario took out Eli's magic wand, turned to a page in the book that gave him the spell he needed to put everything together, and waved the wand, following the patterns in the book. Once he was finished, everything came together to create the Wand of Light.

"Now we can get into the cave," he said.

"Are we sure we want to?" Toad asked, nervously.

"Hmmm," Mario said, shining the Wand of Light inside the cave. There were several tunnels and corridors in there. It looked like a maze.

"Maybe we should try something else," he said.

"Maybe the Earth Knight can help," the Princess said. "Look, he's carrying an envelope."

"Yeah, but he's too terrified to even think straight!" Toad shouted.

"Here's a spell for a tranquilizer," Mario said. "Let's brew it and give it to the Earth Knight. Then maybe he'll be able to help us."

The Princess and Toad nodded, and helped Mario gather the ingredients for the potion. Once they had everything, Mario waved Eli's wand to conjure up a cauldron, dumped everything in, and waved the wand again to mix everything together. Once it was ready, Mario gave it to the Earth Knight. Once the knight drank the potion, he seemed to calm down.

"Thank you, noble sir!" the Earth Knight shouted. "I feel better now."

"Good," Mario said. "But what are you doing here?"

"And why did you leave the Water Lord?" the Princess asked.

"The Water Lord sent me to deliver a message to the mighty Dragon of Thunder Hills," the Earth Knight said. "But I'm so scared! Here's a map of the maze and an official decree from his Lordship. Please take it to the dragon, I don't think I can go in there myself!"

"Oh brother, some knight!" Toad shouted.

"Sure, we'll take it to the dragon for you," Mario said. "Come on, guys! The sooner we find the dragon, the sooner we get the Energy Shard! And the sooner we get the Energy Shard, the sooner we can rescue Luigi!"

Thanks to the map, Mario, Toad, and the Princess found their way through the maze and to the center of the cave fairly quickly. There they found a huge pile of treasures, and a sleeping green dragon. He was about about a foot taller than Eli.

"That's the Great Dragon of Thunder Hills?" Toad asked.

"I was expecting something bigger," Mario said. "Oh well. We'd better wake him up."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the Princess asked.

"Relax, Princess," Mario said. "I know what I'm doing. Excuse me, Mr. Dragon? Time to wake up!"

Mario took the dragon's hand, and began pulling on it, trying to wake up the great beast. The Dragon woke up with a start, and was not at all happy about it.

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLEEP?!" he bellowed. "I AM THE GREAT DRAGON OF THUNDER HILLS!"

"Uh oh!" Mario shouted.

The Dragon roared, and shot a sheet of flame out of his mouth at our heroes. They jumped out of the way in the nick of time. Mario then pulled Eli's pendant out from under his shirt and held it up.

"Wait, wait!" he shouted. "We were sent by Eli Mentelle, to retrieve the Energy Shard of the Great Key!"

The Dragon stopped his rampage, sniffed at the pendant, and studied it intently. Then he calmed down significantly.

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" the Dragon asked. Then he stifled a yawn. "Excuse me. I haven't been sleeping well lately. Those elementals are really getting under my skin. I can't get any rest with them around! They robbed me yesterday, can you beat that?"

"If there were three of them, and they looked like big brutes, Mario got rid of them," Toad said.

"Aaahhh, excellent, excellent!" the Dragon shouted. "Now maybe I can get some sleep!"

"Wait, Great Dragon!" Mario shouted. "Don't go back to sleep yet! We need your help! We're looking for the Energy Shard of the Great Key!"

"Oh that thing," the Dragon said. "Yes, I've got it. But I can't part with it. It's so shiny . . . . so pretty . . . ."

"Oh, but we really need it!" the Princess shouted.

"Yeah," Mario said. "Adara the Fire Mistress kidnapped my brother, and we need all six of the shards in order to rescue him!"

"The Fire Mistress, huh?" the Great Dragon said. "Hmmm. That's different. I'll tell you what. You get my stolen treasure back, and then we'll talk. Here. Take my magic lens, and this chest. Those elementals hid them all over the cliffs, but you won't be able to find them without my lens. They're tricky devils."

"Okay, let's go," Mario said.

Once the trio was at the cave entrance, Mario looked through the lens, looking for various hidden treasures. Once he spotted one, he touched the space on the rocks where the elementals hid it, and it appeared for Toad and the Princess to see.

"Wow!" Toad shouted. "I wonder how the elementals did that!"

"Beats me," the Princess said, shrugging. "Magic, I guess."

"I hope this doesn't take too long," Mario said, picking up another piece of the Dragon's treasure. "I want to get Luigi out of that witch's clutches ASAP!"

Toad and the Princess really couldn't argue with that, so they stood back, and waited for Mario to finish finding the Dragon's treasures. Once they were finished, they dragged the chest back to the Great Dragon's cave.

"Here you go, Great Dragon," Mario said. "I'm pretty sure that's all of it."

"Uh huh," the Dragon said. He opened the chest, and began to look through it. Then he nodded. "Yep, that's everything. Thank you. Treasure is my weakness. I just love trinkets and baubles and shiny stuff like that! Anyway, here's the Energy Shard."

The Dragon dug into his pile of shiny treasures, and threw a purple crystal to Mario. He caught it and tucked it into his overalls.

"Thanks!" he shouted.

"Oh, before I forget," Toad said, "we have a letter for you. It's from the Water Lord."

"Oh, from Lord Water-Schmater, eh?" he asked, as he opened the letter. "It says, please provide this individual with a magical deck of Fair Play Cards. Now where did I put those? Make yourselves useful and help me find them. They're all over the place."

Mario, Toad, and the Princess looked at each other, shrugged, and began to search for the cards.

"Hey guys?" Toad asked, picking up one of the cards. "Do these cards look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Mario said. "These look like the elemental solitaire cards that apparition thing kept wanting me to play with before he'd let us go into the portal at the Magic Tower."

"What would the Water Lord want with them?" the Princess asked, as she gave the Dragon the last card.

"Only one way to find out," the Dragon said. "Let's go see."

The group walked out of the cave, and approached the Earth Knight, who was still standing at the entrance, waiting patiently.

"Hey, fella," the Dragon said. "You the guy who ol' Waterboss sent for the Fair Play cards? Heh heh. I can see right through you. He doesn't want them. You do, don't you?"

"Yes, that is correct," the Earth Knight said. "I need them."

"Then why didn't you tell us that?" the Princess asked. "We would have gone to get them for you. You didn't need to pretend."

The Earth Knight said nothing. He just smiled, and a bright glow surrounded him. Mario, Toad, and the Princess backed up, nervously. When the glow subsided, the Earth Knight was gone, and in his place was the apparition with the cards.

"Him again?!" Toad shouted. "Wait 'til I get my hands on you!"

"No need, little friend," the apparition said. "This was merely a test. And I am pleased to say you have passed, and are ready to progress."

"We have?" Mario asked. "We are?"

"Yes," the apparition said. "You now have all the shards to the Great Key. Now you must go to the Temple of Flames. Adara is holding your brother there. I'll open the portal for you. Good luck!"

The apparition stood to the side, and a large, red, glowing portal opened in front of our heroes, but Mario wasn't so sure if he could trust the apparition.

"I don't know about this," he said.

"Me neither," the Princess said.

"But I don't think we've got a choice," Toad said, shrugging. "Especially if we want to rescue Luigi!"

"You're right, Toad," Mario said. "I guess we're just gonna have to trust this guy! Let's go!"

Mario, Toad, and the Princess stepped through the portal nervously, and hoped that it wasn't going to lead them into a trap.