Hello people! Sentinel07 here with Chapter 9.

Thanks once again to everyone who reviewed, especially those who have been around since the very beginning. :)

Italics means a character's personal thoughts.

Bold and italics refers to quotes using telepathy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kid Icarus or any other referenced video game or anime.

Now, let's begin! I'm especially curious to hear the feedback for this chapter, for better or for worse.

(BEGIN)

Chapter 9: Nature vs. Darkness Part 2 – Meeting of Powers

Somewhere

"Where is this stupid place again?" asked Dark Pit.

He was now in the Lightning Chariot, speeding towards an unknown destination. Palutena had sent him on a mission on his own, one of great importance as she put it. However, she didn't really explain why.

"It's just a little father. Keep going." urged Palutena.

"Fine, but I fail to see what's so important that you need me to do it." said Dark Pit. Right as he said that, he felt a familiar surge of electricity in the air. He didn't even really need to look at who appeared next to him.

"What do you want Phosphora?" Dark Pit glared at her.

"Wow, someone's especially dark today. Don't you ever get tired of being grumpy?" giggled Phosphora as she flew alongside the Lightning Chariot.

"I think a better question would be why you seem to enjoy annoying me." replied Dark Pit.

"Because it's way too easy to do. You take everything too seriously." pouted Phosphora. Dark Pit shrugged at that before returning to guiding the Chariot.

"Well whatever. Do you mind leaving now? I've got something to do." said Dark Pit. Phosphora smirked at him.

"Duh, I already knew that. I'm here to look with you." she smiled.

"And why in the world would you do that?" sighed Dark Pit.

"Because Mistress Viridi also asked me to check out the site you're going to. It is one of those extra special places after all." said Phosphora.

"Just go away. I don't need your help." scoffed Dark Pit. He went back to guiding the Chariot, but Phosphora still wouldn't leave.

"You can be so mean. You'll never pick up girls with that attitude." she said.

"Who says I'm even trying? Now get out of here and go annoy someone else." scoffed Dark Pit, lashing the reins on Phos and Lux a bit more. Despite this, Phosphora still wouldn't leave, making Dark Pit sigh.

"Sigh, fine. Just don't talk too much." he groaned, making Phosphora smile.

"Aw, thanks Pittoo." giggled Phosphora, making Dark Pit grit his teeth in anger.

"Seriously, that is the last time I want to hear Pittoo!"

(LINE BREAK)

Back at the Valhalla Plains

"Give up! You're mathematically outnumbered!"

"Be quiet! Nobody said there'd be math!"

Pit was now engaged in a brutal battle with the revived Hewdraw. While Hewdraw's attacks were mostly the same as he always has, the beast wasn't nearly as easy as he was before. Hewdraw wasn't stupid after all. Pit would have to be smart to pull out a win here.

"You've gotten stronger haven't you?" smirked Pit at the three-headed beast.

"Heh heh, you're not the only one who can get stronger you know. You have no idea how strong the three of us are when we're focused." smirked Purple Head.

Pit fired some more arrows at the beast, a few hitting but Hewdraw dodged the rest. Violet head came in for a vicious chomp at Pit, but the angel sidestepped to dodge it. Close-range combat wasn't exactly ideal for this situation, given the aerial situation and how the two combatants attacked. Despite this, Pit didn't want to have to resort to Palutena using her "Clobber Laser" to defeat him. Hewdraw just gave him a rousing speech about him needing to have more confidence in himself to become stronger. Pit wasn't going to follow that up with needing Palutena to win the battle for him.

Pit then rolled to the side as Blue Head unleashed a stream of flame at him. He quickly had to do it again as streams of flame from the other two heads came right after.

"Sheesh. Not kidding around huh?" muttered Pit as he got himself upright again.

Hewdraw then charged in again, all three heads getting ready for a huge attack. Pit once again prepped himself. This was going to be a long battle indeed.

(LINE BREAK)

Meanwhile, in another part of the plains

While all of this was going on, with the Forces of Nature and the Underworld Army going at each other, Viridi walked onto the plains, looking around at the violent scenery around her.

"Sigh and I just got the place working again." groaned Viridi.

A stray Monoeye charged at Viridi, but she easily repelled it with a nature spell, destroying it instantly. She pulled out her staff, which was similar to the one she always used, except a little longer to account for her taller frame. She began walking through the swarm of fighting enemies, not really caring too much about them right now. Only thing to go was to let that play out for now. She had somewhere to get to.

After having to repel a few more Underworld troops along the way, Viridi reached the center of the plains, where a lone figure was sitting, it's back turned to her. Viridi could tell who it was, judging by the information she had heard from Pit and Palutena from Pit's previous missions.

The figure didn't seem to acknowledge Viridi's presence. In fact, the figure showed no indication that it knew she was there. Viridi could even hear the figure whispering to itself.

"Is this right? Am I doing the right thing by doing this? Would Mom and Dad approve?" the figure whispered before apparently shaking its head. "No, why am I thinking that? Of course they would approve. They want this as much as I do. Everyone does."

Viridi could sense a solemn tone from the figure, and decided to make her presence known.

"You having an inner monologue?" asked Viridi, a bit of a sarcastic tone in that. The figure jumped in surprise, obviously not expecting it. It turned, and Viridi could easily see that it was Iris.

"Who would have guessed that the new Underworld leader could be easily snuck-up on." smirked Viridi. However, her grin went away as Iris got a straight look at Viridi, her face slowly beginning to twist in anger.

"You!"

(LINE BREAK)

Pit dodged to the side again, getting out of the way of Hewdraw's fire breath attack.

"Sheesh, this is taking forever. And dodging his fire attacks is getting harder." grunted Pit.

"Do a barrel roll!" advised Palutena.

"That's not really helping!" retorted Pit as he dodged yet another fire breath attack. He had managed to bet by so far with barely dodging Hewdraw's attacks and getting in a few arrows here and there, but it was taking forever at this rate. Pit needed to wrap this up. Who knows if Prometheus or any of the others were here? Pit needed to find out for sure.

"Getting tired angel?" gloated Purple Head as he came in for a chomp attack. Pit rolled to dodge, although Purple Head got a little damage in, grazing Pit's side.

"Are you alright?" asked Palutena.

"It's alright Lady Palutena. Just a flesh wound." grinned Pit. At that point, from how Pit and Hewdraw were flying, they were nearing a mountainous area near the Plains. That was where Pit began to get an idea.

"Come on!" challenged Pit, firing more arrows at Hewdraw. As expected, Hewdraw followed Pit, going into the mountains. Pit headed towards the ground, almost as if he was going to collide with it, something Palutena was beginning to worry about.

"Pit! What are you doing?!"

"Just trust me!" Pit called back as he neared the ground, with Hewdraw hot on his tail. As he fell down, Pit began to charge an arrow, which Hewdraw saw.

"Those arrows of yours haven't been so effective." said Purple Head as he roared at Pit. Pit smirked and faced Hewdraw.

"We'll see." said Pit as he suddenly jerked to the left.

However, he did this right before he hit the plateau, but Hewdraw was going too fast for him to stop, causing him to collide right into the plateau, shaking the mountain and causing dozens of boulders to fall down.

"Oh yeah! That worked perfectly!" cheered Pit as he arched back his bow. "Now to finish it!"

Pit fired his charged arrow at Hewdraw, hitting the beast square in the chest. Hewdraw roared as the blast caused him to fall further down the mountain, impacting and shaking the ground as he fell, unconscious.

"Oh yeah! Number one again baby!" cheered Pit, doing a little victory dance in mid-air.

"I'm happy for you Pit, but don't you have other problems?" asked Palutena. Pit immediately stopped, getting back on his flight pattern.

"Oh right! I need to get back to the Plains!" he said.

"Better hurry too. The Power of Flight is almost completely run out." warned Palutena.

After that, Pit immediately flew back to the Plains, landing on the nearby ground just as the Power of Flight left his wings.

"Phew. A little too close there." said Pit.

"Well, no harm no foul." said Palutena. "Now, you need to get moving to the center. I sense Viridi and Iris there."

"Uh oh. That's not good, especially if Iris really has it out for Viridi!"

(LINE BREAK)

"Me?" asked Viridi at Iris' comment. Iris' face seemed to be a mix of surprise and anger, although slowly becoming more of the latter. "Weren't you expecting me? You did call me out here after all."

Iris fiercely gripped Gáe Bolg, dark energy beginning to stream off of him. "At long last. Time for me to get payback."

Viridi raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to introduce yourself? We've never met before right?" she smirked. Iris seemed to get even angrier.

"You know who I am. Iris, leader of the Underworld." she seethed.

"You're not using your title? People often call you the Fell Warrior I hear." said Viridi.

"I don't care for such titles." spat Iris. "Now enough talk! I've been waiting too long to thrust Gáe Bolg through your chest, and now I finally have that chance."

"Look, I don't know why you're so amped up over me, but I'm not going to roll over and die just because you say so." warned Viridi, bringing her staff to a fighting position.

"Enough talk!" growled Iris as she suddenly sped right towards Viridi, lunging with her double-bladed spear. "KRESNIK SPEAR!"

Viridi's eyes widened as she quickly erected a barrier at the very last second. Gáe Bolg was engulfed in dark flames of dark red and purple as it impacted her shield, sending a shockwave throughout the immediate area.

Iris scoffed and retreated back a ways. "That's a troublesome barrier you have. Oh well, I'll break it down soon enough." she spat, as Gáe Bolg was again engulfed in dark red and purple flames.

Viridi actually found that she had to catch her breath a bit. Iris' attack was straightforward yet brutal.

"That spear is truly formidable." she muttered as she prepared herself again.

"You won't get off easy this time!" said Iris as she prepared to lunge again.

However, this fight was about to be interrupted.

"Hold up there!" called Pit as he landed in the area, situating himself next to Viridi, Sacred Bow of Palutena at the ready.

"Pit." muttered Viridi.

"Can't have you just going around and attacking my friends. I won't let you harm Viridi!" defended Pit.

Iris glared at him. "You dare interrupt?! I'll kill you as well if you try to stop me!"

"You don't scare me! I don't know why you're so hell-bent on killing Viridi, but I won't let you kill her over something she didn't do!" said Pit.

Hearing Pit's word, Iris did something that neither Pit or Viridi could see coming. She lifted her head up and laughed. Not an evil laugh per se, more of one of amusement. Kind of like a little kid who just found something to be extremely funny.

"Something she didn't do?! Hahahahaha! You don't know the half of it!" laughed Iris as she began to calm down a bit.

"What do you mean?" asked Pit, with Viridi wondering the same thing. Iris calmed herself down and put a hand to her face.

"You know nothing. Nothing of what she did to me." said Iris with a slight solemn tone. "She's the reason why I'm like this."

"What?" asked Pit, both he and Viridi becoming even more confused.

At those words, Iris looked them both straight in the eye.

"I'm like this because she killed me. Me and my whole family!"

(END)

What's this?! Iris was killed by Viridi?! Along with her family?! What is the meaning of all this? The answers and more wait in the finale of the Nature vs. Darkness arc, coming very soon.

For this chapter's bio, we look at the top commander of the Forces of Nature: Phosphora the Lightning Flash:

*****Phosphora*****

Age: 16-17 (appearance-wise)

Appearance: Same as Uprising.

Japanese seiyu: Yuka Komatsu

English VA: Kari Wahlgren

Bio: Phosphora is a nymph (nature spirit) that has remained the top commander in Viridi's army. However, she has recently grown very concerned for Viridi, but unfortunately has no choice but to go along with her plans. She has been in contact with Dark Pit often, which has often annoyed the dark angel. Viridi thinks that she likes Dark Pit, although Phosphora is quick to deny it.

*****End bio*****

And that's all for yet another installment. Stay tuned for the exciting and dramatic finale of this min-arc in the upcoming Part 3! As always, review and let me know what you think. Sentinel07, signing out!