Chapter 10
Pit POV:
I didn't expect that Palutena would say those words, though I didn't dare mention anything that I heard. But I'm sure Palutena already knew that I listened in because she was able to read thoughts.
"Yes, I know you heard me Pit... but let's not dwell on that right now. We need to find the 3 Sacred Treasures," Palutena said as we went to the sky and I saw we were having turbulence with Underworld troops.
"Of course, Palutena. So where are the 3 Sacred Treasures?" I asked.
"Well, see, there's this Space Pirate Ship that travels the galactic sea and robs the heavens of the constellations... and I hid the treasures in the constellation of Cancer, which the ship stole. And the Underworld Army has caught wind of it, so they're attacking the ship as well," Palutena said.
"Oh great," I groaned.
"Okay, so since you have unlimited flight now, we're going to raid the pirate ship and retrieve the treasures, taking out both Underworld forces and Space Pirates alike," Palutena explained.
"Got it, let's go!" I said, Palutena speeding my flight up so I shot through the stars and into orbit, leading me through more and more Underworld troops until we reached a sight that was beautiful. It was a giant sea filled with giant orbs that were connected by pink lines. "Man, what a sight!" I smiled.
"You've arrived at the Galactic Sea... the Pirate Ship could be anywhere, so be prepared," Palutena said, me flying a bit before something came out from underneath the crystal-clear water. A gigantic ship! And the moment it surfaced, it zoomed off ahead, Palutena helping me by giving me a speed boost so that I now matched the speed that the pirate ship was going... which was fast enough to make my face start to jiggle!
"G-FORCE IN MY FAAACE!" I exclaimed from the wind pushing against my body super fast as Palutena forced me to land right on the hull of the ship. I groaned as I got up and I looked around, me seeing that there was an area nearby and I gasped at what I saw. The casket that contained the treasures!
"There it is, Pit! Go get it quickly," Palutena said. But just as I was about to grab it, something happened. A Space Pirate emerged and he had a megaphone on him and a pirate's hat. He then started to yell into it, but I couldn't understand a word of his alien language.
"Um... you have any idea what this guy is saying?" I asked Palutena.
"He's like, 'yarr! I'll make ye walk the space plank, scurvy dog'!" Palutena said in a horrible pirate accent.
"Hehe, that was a funny interpretation," I smiled. But before I could just grab the treasures and leave, a loud rumbling happened and four giant tentacles shot out of the water, me seeing that three more were holding the front of the ship and preventing it from escaping! Then one of them grabbed hold of the Space Pirate Captain and tossed him into the sky... and what happened after? A GIANT OCTOPUS MONSTER ATE HIM ALIVE! And this monster? One eye of it was as big as two and a half of me!
"A Space Kraken?! Well that came out of nowhere! Get rid of those tentacles and take it out! If you lose this fight, you lose the Sacred Treasures!" Palutena exclaimed.
"Got it!" I exclaimed as I shot at the tentacles with some dash attacks, which I could tell were the most powerful when using the Palutena Bow. I made quick work of the giant tentacles and sliced them to bits, the head being the only thing remaining. I dodged out of the way of a flurry of water shots and attacked him with a side charged shot before the monstrous squid could make another move. And after only one more strike to his eyeballs, the squid fell into the waters and I felt the ship start to sink. I immediately grabbed the treasures and, not five minutes later, Palutena teleported me out of the Galactic Sea and back home.
"Whoo! That was a tough time, but I succeeded," I smiled widely.
"That it was," Palutena smiled as I saw that Pandora and Coca were still here, but they were looking to be making a fake Wish Seed, as was Coca's plan.
"If I'm right, the Wish Seed was made to look like a budding seed of a Yggdrasil tree," Pandora said.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm trying my hardest here. Besides, has anyone ever seen a Yggdrasil seed?" Coca asked.
"I don't know... there's only one person who would though. Her name is Viridi, the Goddess of Nature," Palutena said.
"You mean that adorable cactus? I used to butt heads with her all the time back in the days. Claimed that I was destroying the natural order by slaying monsters native to the Earth. She's got a whole army of plant, animal, and mineral-styled creatures in her army, the Forces of Nature... I just hope that she doesn't try to rear her angry head at all during this fight," Pandora said.
"Well, we'll never know... hmm..." Palutena frowned as she looked at the scrying bowl. "It seems the Phoenix is still dormant. Which means the Underworld Armies haven't disturbed it yet. But who knows how long we have? We need to finish this fake seed," Palutena said.
"Agreed," I said.
"Yeah, you say that, but in reality, me and Pandy are over here busting our asses trying to get it looking exactly like the seed Hades described in the rumors," Coca swore again.
"Okay, okay, no need to swear," I frowned at her.
"Pit, I'm a Draker. Swearing and cursing like a sailor is pretty much universal language to me," Coca smiled.
"She's being truthful. Drakers have been known to have tongues that are sharper than any of their claws," Pandora smiled.
Coca POV:
After two more long, grueling hours of preparation, the fake Wish Seed was completed. And after it was, not two minutes after, Palutena said that the Underworld Army was attacking the Phoenix. That was mine and Pandora's cue as we rushed out of the conjured door and we proceeded to fly out to the Phoenix's mountain. And thanks to Palutena's Power of Cooling, we had no issues at all with melting from the heat. But even cooler was that, with the Power of Cooling enveloping my body, my flame breath was now able to turn into ice breath! It didn't even melt when I froze any Underworld monsters with it!
"Hoho! This could be useful when facing the Phoenix," I smiled widely as we rushed through the volcanic areas. And after going through a cave filled with more Underworld troops, we came across the volcanic crater itself. Filled to the brim with hot boiling lava and fiery flumes that erupted from time to time.
"Whoa-ho-ho! This is quite the show! Remind me to come back here again someday!... Just so long as I have Power of Cooling, heh," I smiled at my own stupid words.
"The Phoenix is currently engaged in battle with the Underworld forces. Normally the volcano would be much more powerful with the spectacle, but since the Phoenix is putting its energy into fighting the Underworld Army, the volcano has been left open to invasion," Palutena said grimly.
"No worries. Even if we beat the Phoenix, he'll always come back to life. I read about it in a Draker tome that talked of the immortality of the godly bird," I smiled.
"So how many tomes do you read?" Pandora asked me.
"Our tribe is the only one left and my parents are both in charge of the records keeping for the tribe. So they are in possession of all the tomes of the previous Drakers and their ancestry," I smiled as we proceeded further into the mountain and I was able to hear a loud screeching in the distance.
"Yep, that sounds like the Phoenix alright. We should probably fly the whole way there to save time," Pandora said.
"Uh, duh!" I smiled. But then came the murderous troll.
"Well, helloooo there! So nice of you to join us," said the voice of Hades in our heads.
"Shut it, murderer!" I growled at him.
"Oh, and you're one to talk? You don't have any issues taking out my minions," Hades smiled at me.
"Your minions are nothing but hate incarnate and they don't have any brain matter either. Meanwhile, Medusa was completely able to act on her own and had quite the brain... and you kill her for no goddamn reason!" I snarled at him.
"My, my, you sure do have a sharp tongue, little miss Draker. But if you must know, I created that Medusa all on my own," Hades said, Palutena gasping.
"But... how?!" she asked.
"Add a pinch of memories to a ton of souls, put them in a blender and hit frappe," Hades said, me gasping at that wording.
"Wait... you mean to tell me that you reuse souls of humans and other intelligent beings to be used to create your armies?! You're vile vermin! If those souls were being killed like that, they'd never be able to move on or be reborn!" I growled at him.
"Reborn? What do you mean by that?" Hades asked with a chuckle.
"Reborn, as in, coming back to life as a baby of some other kind of person or creature. Like a human could turn into a mermaid or something," I said to him.
"Well, doesn't being turned into a soldier of the Underworld count as being 'reborn'?" Hades asked nonchalantly, which made it even more despicable.
"You're lucky that we don't have the power to defeat you just yet, monster. If we did, I'd kill you on the spot," I growled at him angrily.
"Oh? But don't you want to hear my wish that I want to make on the Wish Seed?" Hades asked, me frowning at that.
"You really think you can fool me, idiot?" I frowned at him.
"What do you mean?" Hades asked.
"I know well enough to know that wish-granting items do not exist period. If any item was like that, the gods would be no more because a selfish person would wish to become the ruler of all gods. And even then, the only ones that grant wishes are genies, but they are known to always have a backfire to their wishes," I frowned at him.
"Ohh, so you know the Wish Seed is a fake, so why are you coming after it then?" Hades asked.
"Because the Phoenix could very easily kill the whole world if he was released. Either way, we know that this isn't going to end well. But we'll try our damnedest to stop you from making this plan come to fruition," I frowned.
"Yeah, what she said," Pandora said.
"Hmm? And you are?..." Hades asked, making me a bit perplexed about how he didn't recognize Pandora. Maybe because of him never seeing her Amazon form?
"Don't tell me you've forgotten your former ally Pandora?" Pandora smiled seductively.
"Apologies... I just don't remember you being so... animated," Hades said, me sensing his confusion.
"That's not the half of it, heehee," Pandora giggled as we finally came across the Phoenix and we saw the Wish Seed in the center of an arena. And the Phoenix was taking care of some Skuttlers when we came in to fight.
"Bring it on, flame breath!" I exclaimed at the Phoenix as I then kicked it directly in the face, sending it falling to the ground for Pandora to get to work on slashing at it and sending some projectiles at its face. And I saw that the projectiles in question were shaped like hearts. The Phoenix looked to be wheezing afterwards, me amazed at Pandora's skills.
"Weakening hearts. Time to end this!" Pandora smirked as she sliced off the head of the Phoenix, the beacon flying up to the sky with a fiery apparition.
"Palutena, get here now!" I said, hoping she'd get to our location before Hades could start spouting his mouth. I looked over to the Wish Seed and saw the Underworld Skuttlers attack it and have it blow up just as Palutena arrived.
"Okay, let's do it," Palutena said as she, myself, and Pandora all focused our magics together to form our image across the world, making sure that Hades's connection was not able to reach the humans or other creatures.
"Attention people of the world!" I said, my image appearing with the replica Wish Seed in hand, me being able to hear the voices of the people from the projection that happened everywhere in the world.
"If you are wondering what this is, it is the fabled wish seed. Now watch as I prove how worthless it is! I wish that all the rivers of the world would be made of strawberry ice cream!" I said, waiting for a good fifteen seconds before I heard the confusion all over the world. "Yes, the Wish Seed is an absolute fake. No items can grant wishes. And this Wish Seed is 100 percent the real deal, yet it is unable to grant a wish as dreamy as mine. It's up to you to believe me or not, but if you hear another voice say that what I say are lies, that voice belongs to Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. He's the one who said the Wish Seed was real so he could have you fight yourselves to extinction to strengthen his armies by collecting your souls. And like I said, it's up to you to choose who to believe. Me, the Goddess of the Drakers. Or Hades, the Ruler of the Underworld. Tata," I said, me and my two female allies gasping at the end of our speech and us wheezing at how much magic we used.
"Whew... that took a lot out of us... but at least we know that the humans won't fight as badly as Hades intended," Palutena sighed as she warped our trio back to Skyworld to recover.
"Oh, is that what you think? If anything can be known about humans, it's their greed. It's just impossible for them to resist the lure of a wish-granting item," Hades said. But I smiled as I sensed something in his mind from far away. He had no idea that we had just did what we did.
"Just you wait, Hades," I frowned.
"Oh, you'll be in for quite the surprise, little miss Coca," Hades smiled at me.
"Says you, overgrown fuckwad," I growled at him.
"How cold of you. Your words pierce my heart like an icicle," Hades smiled nonchalantly before I felt his influence leave.
"We should wait to recover our powers for a bit... I'll keep an eye on the scrying bowl in the meantime so you can recover your strength, okay, sis?" I smiled at Palutena.
"I'd like that a lot, sis... thanks," Palutena smiled.
"And as for me, I'm going to go ahead and have some alone time in my room. Need to relieve this stress," Pandora smiled as she warped herself to her quarters in the temple.