Chapter 15: Mysterious Invaders
After taking down all of Viridi's Commanders, the Lunar Sanctum, and the Reset Bomb Factory, Palutena was perfectly content with letting Pit have a comfortable night of rest before they went to deal with the goddess of nature herself. Riku spent the night in Skyworld staring out towards the starry sky, whose vastness was perfectly visible due to the lack of clouds this far up off the planet. Close to the time where the sun would rise, the teenage Overlord could sense something descending through the atmosphere of the planet, and he put on a serious expression before Palutena spoke to him through his mind.
"Riku, you need to get ready for battle. I've already forced Pit up and equipped him with a weapon." The urgency in the goddess' voice made Riku immediately reply with "You sensed it too, didn't you? We're under attack from something other than the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature." "I figured you would have sensed that. I'll summon a door in front of you, and you can meet up with Pit near the scene of attack."
As she says this, a magic door appears before Riku, with the sun beginning to cast it's bright orange light across the sky as she proceeds to enter through the door. He draws his sword and activates his flight to slowly float through the air above a small mountain range. The luminescent glow of the sunrise didn't feel beautiful today, but instead it carried an ominous vibe as the teenage Overlord turned around and caught Pit lazily flying through the air with a bow in hand forged to look a lot like Phosphora's lightning bolts.
The young angel let out an incredible yawn as his arms drooped in front of him, and Riku commented "I'm guessing you didn't sleep very well?" "…Oh…morning Riku…No, no I didn't sleep well…" Pit murmurs out with minimal effort. "Sorry Pit, but we're in the middle of a planetary emergency. We have a huge problem, one bigger than us gods." Palutena states in a very bothered tone, which is then followed by both Pit and Riku turning their heads forward in order to see a rather worrisome sight.
A dozen or so gigantic, flying islands could be seen spread across the sky, each one of them built so particularly that their undersides were formed into the shapes of funnels. From these undersides emerged light-blue beams of light that reached for the surface of the planet and tore it apart, dragging large chunks of rock, magma and water into their islands for some unknown reason. As he looks at this, Pit wakes up quite a bit and exclaims "What's going on?! They're ransacking the Earth!"
As the two heroes try to approach the islands, a squadron of drones are suddenly launched from the islands and immediately sent towards the intruders. The drones take on the shape of silver metallic triangles, and they fly by the two heroes in a rather organized manner, only to be promptly taken down by Pit and Riku's attacks. As holographic triangular edges start to show up via tiny probes, Pit looks at the beams touching the ground and comments "Are these the same things that took Thanatos away yesterday?"
"I sincerely doubt it Pit. Whatever these things are, they capture the land, not crystallize it and THEN capture it." Palutena offers her input on the situation, and Pit immediately jumps to conclusions on things considering how yesterday ended and said "Maybe they're a new unit of the Forces of Nature?" "Oh come ON now, do they look 'natural' to you?!" Viridi suddenly chimes in using a rather insulted tone of voice.
Before Pit could call out her name as usual, Hades then suddenly exclaims in a very chipper tone "Mornin', do-gooders!" The young angel is distracted by the Lord of the Underworld's sudden appearance and says "Don't tell me you two are behind all this?" Combined with his tiredness, he ends up taking a couple small energy shots to the face thanks to the triangular drones. As Riku takes the drones down, Hades' says in a lamenting tone "Sadly no, but I approve of any and all violence directed towards you."
"Besides, like I would EVER work with Hades. In fact, I was about ready to destroy him when THEY suddenly appeared." Viridi comments, and you could hear Hades' shocked gasp in the background as she did so. "No, they saved HER at the last minute." The Lord of the Underworld replies in a rather kiddish manner. "…Aren't you two both out of Commanders at this point? I really have to question what you would have done to each other short of a direct confrontation." Riku remarks.
"Touché, Ricky Boy." Hades says in a mildly humored manner, and with a tilt of his head Pit interjects with a remark of "Sooo…Neither of you know what we're dealing with here?" "Of course not, but I'm sure know-it-all Palutena or Ricky Boy would have some idea of what's going on." Hades' replies with. The goddess of light then proceeds to mention "Unfortunately, I don't know any more than you do. I can only tell you that they're not of this world."
"You mean they're…invaders from space?!" Pit said, expressing both surprised and horror in his words. "From space you say? Alright everyone, raise your hand if you came to this planet from outer space!" Hades' says in a rather goofy tone of voice, and though Riku knew he was being called out on this matter he didn't say anything while he gave the Lord of the Underworld an annoyed glare from afar. "Hmm, it seems the chosen one is too shy to speak up. Oh well, perhaps he doesn't know a thing after all." Hades' choices of words and firm voice suggested that he suspected otherwise, which worried the teenage Overlord as usual.
"Forget about just WHAT these freaks are! They're harvesting whole sections of earth! They're like mechanical bees, taking pollen back to whatever freaky hive they call home!" Viridi puts up a rather interesting analogy, but as in his nature Hades admits "Not to quibble over details, but I think locusts are a more apt analogy. But whatever they are, they must be stopped. Earth is MY flower to plunder, not theirs!" As he proclaims this, Underworld troops start to fly through the air towards the floating islands, but another line of defense in the form of laser fire shoots them down from the sky with ease.
"Ugh, are you serious? Let a REAL leader show you how it's done, Hades! Forces of Nature, drop the hammer!" Viridi's demand of a heavy assault on the islands leads to hundreds of her troops speeding back and forth through the air past the laser fire, but they only get so far before the drones come in and take them down with organized numbers. The goddess of nature is silent for a few moments, and the Lord of the Underworld chuckles before he says "Oh little rosebud, I'm waiting for you to show me how it's done!"
His taunting tone gets on Viridi's nerves, and she immediately replies with "That was just a warm-up! Come on my children, don't let a bunch of technological locusts ruin this world!" Another squadron of Forces of Nature troops show up for another assault, while some Underworld troops end up joining the mix while Hades directs them with a remark of "Shoot anything that moves!" As Pit and Riku are getting very close to the islands, a couple of silver colored ships that look like more refined funnels are sent out to try and stop them.
As he shoots at the bottom of the ship with Palutena's guidance, Pit remarks "I see those two still won't get along." With enough damage inflicted on the ship to blow up the underside and cause the whole thing to collapse out of the sky, Pit was able to continue on while the goddess of light said "Just ignore those two and focus on the invaders. Stay away from the laser fire if you can also."
"Man, to think that I'd have to deal with an alien invasion. This has really been one messed up month." Pit comments in a somewhat overwhelmed tone of voice, and as he rubs the back of his head for the moment that he was allowed to Riku turns to him and says "You'll be fine Pit…But I will admit, we are kind of outnumbered here." For the teenage Overlord to say that made the young angel ask the goddess of nature "Say Viridi, why are you just sending your regular troops out? We could use a little more firepower."
"YOU TOOK OUT ALL OF MY COMMANDERS! Are you serious Pit?! Arlon and Phosphora are going to be recovering for months, and all my children can barely put Cragalanche back together again! These troops are the best I got!" Viridi exclaims in a disbelieving tone of voice, and the young angel flinches after a moment of forgetfulness before he says "Sheesh, sorry, I forgot. I just wish we knew more about our foes…"
After a momentary pause as the two heroes look over the incredibly crafted islands filled with technological marvels from other worlds, a very excited laugh echoes throughout everyone's minds. "Huh?" Pit ponders, and it's not long after that where a squadron of drones is wiped out by the sweeping flames that emerge from the hands of a figure made entirely out of red fire. The being glides forth for a bit, his body releasing flames in a trail behind him before he glances back at the puzzled Pit and cracks a brimming smile.
Then, just for show, he turns his back to his enemies and flexes his muscles while proclaiming "Villains are no match for Pyrrhon!" As he says this, an aura of fire erupts around his entire body that completely burns the approaching drones to a crisp. The one called Pyrrhon then turns around and blasts off to battle, with Palutena commenting in a surprised tone "Pyrrhon? The sun god Pyrrhon?" "The one and only!" The blazing god proclaims proudly.
"This wacko's the sun god?" Pit says in a disbelieving tone of voice before another swarm of drones causes him to focus on shooting them down. "Well that's what he calls himself anyways!" Viridi says in a very demeaning manner, but the sun god just ignored that and mentioned "So you're all together?! Great! Pyrrhon loves a party!" "We appreciate your assistance, mighty sun god." Riku honestly says towards Pyrrhon.
"Thank you random flying human! …Wait a second." Pyrrhon comments in a rather puzzled tone of voice, and Palutena quickly and nonchalantly says "He's the Elemental Overlord." "Of course! I knew that! I am more than happy to receive a compliment from a fire-user in training! Allow Pyrrhon to show you my power!" The sun god, from a fair distance away, could be seen throwing out large fireballs at the artillery cannons across the top of the island Pit and Riku were over, all the while proclaiming "Taste the power of the sun, fiends!"
"Pyrrhon, if you could focus for a moment, do you know anything about our enemies?" Palutena asks. "Of course!" Pyrrhon quickly replies, throwing subtlety right out the door before he proceeds to explain "They're the Aurum, and THIS passel of floating islands is just one of their bases." "Just ONE of their bases?! How much more hell DO they plan to raise?" Hades remarks in a rather surprised and yet subtly intrigued tone.
"Let me drop a little knowledge on you." Pyrrhon says, and after Viridi sarcastically expresses her joy the sun god states quickly "It's all in the book of divine prophecy, chapter 84, section 3. 'Beckoned by destruction and corruption, the Aurum are born from and return to nothing. They travel across the galaxy to swallow up the heavens, land, and seas.'" "I don't remember that passage." Viridi remarks.
"It's in the super hidden section of the book, you wouldn't know about it…Anyways! Let me just put it bluntly, godlings and Overlord. The Aurum are gonna eat the entire Earth! But stow your fear. Pyrrhon has a delivery, and the return address is 'justice'!" The sun god then cuts away from the conversation for a moment so he can focus on attacking closer to the islands, where Pit and Riku have already descended towards, forcing them to weave through the odd construction the Aurum have utilized in their floating islands.
While focusing on fighting a couple of sparkling, technological Aurum wheels that roll across the ground, Pit asks in a flabbergasted tone "So…We can trust this guy, right?" Palutena was hesitant to say anything, leading to Viridi letting out a sigh and remarking "You know things are bad if this is the guy we're listening to." Afterwards, a series of burning explosions go off across the islands, with Pyrrhon's voice echoing through the sky along with those noises "Feel the wrath of my pyroblasters, space weirdoes! HAHAAHAHA! Kablooey! Kablammy!" The sun god was REALLY enjoying himself as he tore apart Aurum forces left and right with his short-bursts of flame beams from his hands.
"…Yes…Lets just let Pyrrhon take care of things up here. We'll take the other side of the islands!" Palutena proclaims as she proceeds to take the young angel through a chasm between two islands, avoiding the fire erupting out from Pyrrhon's attacks in the process. Riku follows close behind and briefly looks back up, saying in an appreciative tone "Honestly, I'm glad one of the gods are actually trying to fight the invaders."
"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" Palutena inquires in a somewhat offended manner. "Yes Riku, what are you trying to say?" Viridi also says, and the teenage Overlord immediately points out "Wasn't talking about you two, you got your forces to command, I can understand that. I was referring to the other gods, like Poseidon." "Who knows, who cares." Palutena comments in a rather nonchalant manner.
The subject is then swiftly switched to a more pressing matter as the two heroes slowly descend close to one of the Aurum's beams of light as it's in the middle of dragging chunks of rock from the planet. "They're out of control!" Pit exclaims in disbelief, and Viridi says "The Aurum are blowing up the earth and then taking the pieces for themselves!" "If the Aurum are like bees or locusts, then what are they making with this? Honey?"
Pit's question is going to go unanswered as Palutena mentions "Viridi, it was you and Hades who lured the Aurum to our world." "What?! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Viridi immediately lashes out defensively at the goddess of light, and Riku says to the goddess of nature in retaliation "Viridi, shut up and listen." "Well, Pyrrhon said they're 'beckoned by destruction and corruption.' They were likely drawn here by the war between the Underworld and nature. " Palutena then says.
"Convenient how YOU'VE forgotten your little tiff with the Underworld!" Viridi exclaims to remind Palutena of past events, followed by Pit commenting in an annoyed manner "Convenient how YOU'VE forgotten the massive Reset Bomb visible from space." As the teenage Overlord nods his head in agreement, Viridi points out "You two! Zip it! The Aurum are the aggressors here! We're the victims!"
"She's unfortunately right. Like it or not, we're working together now." Palutena says, choosing not to let this argument escalate any further as Pit and Riku glide past the Aurum's tractor beam and start to head towards a rather unique islands in the center of the swarm that has a tower pointing out at the center of it all. "You're approaching the center of the Aurum islands. That tower is the key to stopping all this devastation. Prepare for land battle, Pit." The young angel pumps his fist into the air and proclaims enthusiastically "OK!" Palutena then sends Pit flying straight for the island, with Riku ready for battle as he follows closely behind him.
On the ground of the Aurum Island, Pit and Riku are greeted by a futuristic landscape unlike anything the young angel had ever seen before. "Is this…the future?" He said in an astounded tone of voice before he began to cautiously advance forward. "The Aurum must have stolen materials all over the universe to build this place." Viridi commented, and it was at that moment that Riku looked around to see if he could recognize anything from other worlds he's visited.
"I wonder how many other planets were ransacked in order to build this place." Palutena ponders the same thing the teenage Overlord did, and as Pit shares in glancing over the island with Riku he says "For being patched together, everything seems pretty structured." "If the Aurum are like bees, that makes sense. Bees are an orderly species. Likewise, the Aurum seem to act as one. And I doubt these drones have any sense of free will." Palutena comments on in an intrigued tone of voice.
As the young angel looks away from the structures he hears no noises in the atmosphere and comments "…It's really creepy how there's no active life on this island. Normally I'd expect a boss or something to talk to us, and they'd be all 'Mwahaha! I've been waiting for you Pit!'" "You aren't that known across the universe Pit…You aren't even that known on this planet!" Viridi exclaims to try and curb the young angel's ego, and Pit says with a nervous rub of his head "That's harsh, Viridi."
After that conversation ends Riku turns his head away from the structure and lets out a sigh of relief upon noticing there was nothing from worlds he visited within the Aurum Island. This allowed him to stay focused on destroying the drones alongside Pit as they advanced towards the command tower at the very center of the island. With Viridi and Hades focused on commanding their troops to deal with the aerial assaults from the Aurum drones, they stayed relatively quiet throughout the whole trip, leaving Pit with only Riku and Palutena to talk to.
"So Riku, you've seriously never encountered the Aurum before?" Pit inquires, bringing up the earlier matter Hades was pressing the teenage Overlord on. The teenage Overlord takes a moment to glance at the young angel and say to him honestly "No, I've never seen the Aurum. Really can't say I've seen many aliens, actually, which surprises me." "You don't say. Well, I'm sure this alien invasion is pretty exciting for you, right?" Pit inquires merrily, hoping to incite a smile from him or something close to that.
The teenage Overlord instead shakes his head and remarks "Can't say it's any fun when the whole planet is at stake." And Pit lets out a sigh before saying "Yeah, I guess so…" He was dejected about Riku's response for only a few moments before he noticed a gold treasure chest to the left of him. "Oh cool, the Aurum have treasure chests!" The young angel proclaims before he enthusiastically runs towards it.
"That's odd, why would the Aurum have one of those here?" Viridi ponders, and sure enough the suspiciousness of the treasure chest is answered via the platform it's on lowering into a pit full of Aurum drones. "Aww man, really?!" Pit says in disbelief, and things were only going to get worse for him as the treasure chest suddenly grows womanly legs with heels and throws a heavy kick into the young angel's back to launch him forward onto the ground.
Pit then rolls to the left to avoid being hit by the Aurum drones that charge at him, and once on his feet he hears Viridi say "Hades, did you place that Mimicutie there?!" "What, me? No, I would never." The Lord of the Underworld says in a nonchalant manner. The young angel takes care of the Aurums while Riku immediately destroys the Minicutie with a giant fireball. Once that's over with, Pit gets back on the platform and is taken back up to the teenage Overlord.
"…Ok, I'm not going for anymore treasure chests here." Pit says in an embarrassed tone of voice. "You can't trust anything the Aurum have, Pit. Everything in here is likely designed to kill or assimilate us." Riku advises, even though he knew the truth about the Mimicutie. The young angel then looked to the left and saw a hot spring in the middle of nowhere and immediately ran for it, causing the teenage Overlord to glare at him in a rather annoyed manner.
Before Pit even sets foot in the hot springs, Riku quickly appears in front of it and holds his hand out to freeze it over entirely with a blast of frost from the palm. "No, Pit, we're going to stop the Aurum, THEN you can enjoy your hot springs back at Skyworld." Riku firmly says to him, and the young angel lets out a disbelieving cry of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" It was amazing how much he took this affront personally, and the sound of his voice echoed within everyone's eardrums.
"Pit, don't you ever do that again! Besides, Riku's right, if the Aurum ravage the entire planet, there won't BE anymore hot springs!" Viridi's remark causes Pit's eyes to suddenly flare up in anger, and with a puff of air through his nostrils he raises his arms into the air and proclaims "Those FIENDS! RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Suddenly, the young angel's energy increases tenfold out of motivation, and he dashes right past the frozen hot springs and begins slaughtering Aurum drones left and right with a combination of rapid-fire lightning bolts and melee attacks from his bow.
Riku has to pick up speed to catch up with Pit in the next room, and by the time he's there the young angel has already jumped into an Exo-Tank and begun to perform road rage and any Aurum drone that happened to get in the way of his high-speed vehicle. "What's an Exo-Tank even doing here?" Viridi inquired, and Palutena said "Don't look at me, I didn't put it there." "Viridi, you did it to help Pit, didn't you?" Riku inquires as he works to keep up with the speeding Pit.
"What?! No! Nuh-uh, I would never, ever, ever help Pit! I definitely don't like him at all!" The goddess of nature sounded all flustered as she responded to the teenage Overlord's inquiry, and in turn Hades chuckled and mentioned "Ah, young love. What I wouldn't give to be an eligible bachelor again. Those were the days…" "This isn't the time to get all lovey-dovey! All of you just be quiet now!" Viridi exclaims in a disgusted tone of voice.
By the time Riku has caught up with Pit, the young angel was using the Exo-Tank to repeatedly ram a Mimicutie against a wall in an attempt to destroy it "Die evil Aurum Mimicutie! Die in the name of hot springs everywhere!" Once the Mimicutie is destroyed entirely, Pit decides to leap off of the Exo-Tank, panting tiredly to himself before he glances to the left and notices Riku staring at him with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "…Well, you certainly cleared the way for us to move on." He then remarks.
In the background, Hades can be heard having a jolly laugh at Pit's little rampage, but the young angel didn't feel like acknowledging it in the slightest. Once he caught his breath, Pit and Riku continue onward, dealing with a long, winding grind rail section before an elevator takes them very close to the center of the island, where the metallic tower can be seen poking up through the center of a blocky, winding path towards the bottom.
"This is the central control tower. Head down and maybe you'll find the core." Palutena says, sounding rather uncertain of herself much to Pit's chagrin. "Aww, sounds like someone's losing her nerve! I guess I'd better step in! Get in here, boys! It's time for some Underworld Army action!" As Hades gives out his bombastic command, a legion of Underworld troops flies down towards the center of the tower, but before they can even make it midway to the bottom a series of laser come up in self-defense, wiping out the legion in a matter of seconds.
"…Well, good luck down there Pitty Pat!" Hades exclaims nonchalantly after a moment of awkward pause, and Pit says to him in retaliation "Both yours and Viridi's armies suck!" "Hey, don't lump my army with Hades'! I would never send my troops in for suicidal missions!" The goddess of nature tries to remark on the young angel's incorrect statement, but with a subtle whisper Hades says "Folks, just check back through the last four chapters to understand why that's incorrect."
"Shut up Hades!" Viridi and Pit exclaim to try and get the Lord of the Underworld to shut up, and the deity merely chuckles and says "I'm pretty certain I'm the one who should be tense here, but if you want to keep yelling that's just fine with me." "…Lady Palutena, why can't you just cut him off already?" Pit inquires, and the goddess replies "You know I can't Pit. Just go take down the Aurum Core and try to ignore him."
"…Fine." Pit laments, and with a weak advance he starts to descend down the pathway to head for the core. Riku just shrugs his shoulders for a moment and says "You'd think you'd be used to this by now Pit…" But the young angel doesn't end up replying to that, much to the teenage Overlord's dismay. The two of them eventually make it to the island's final lift, where they descend upon a circular room filled with shining silver metal walls, a prismatic floor, and a glowing red cylindrical core that's surrounded by four floating guard plates that spin themselves around the core to protect it.
"Alright, this is the Aurum core! Now all we have to do is-" Before Pit can enthusiastically fire a shot at the core, Riku slams his right hand against the ground and sends multiple streams of electricity right at the core with the intention of overloading it entirely. The area becomes redder with each passing second until the core explodes with red electricity, and Pit letting out a sudden "Whoa!" as the entire island begins to shake. "Well now, let's see what happens." Hades says in an intriguing tone of voice.
As the teenage Overlord lifts himself up he says "What happens next is that we get out of here. Come on Pit!" Riku immediately turns towards the ceiling and kicks off the ground to get out of the area before it all blows up. But the young angel doesn't get the power of flight activated in time, forcing Pyrrhon to suddenly show up and intervene, where he grabs Pit under his right arm while proclaiming "Here Pyrrhon comes to save the day!"
Blazing out of the Aurum Islands at full speed, Pyrrhon blows up any debris in his way with one pyro blaster fired from his left hand. By the time the two were a safe enough distance away, the main reactor in the central island reaches critical mass and released a massive, explosive shockwave across all the other islands, cracking all of them in half and completely disabling everything within them. Pyrrhon, with Pit still in his grasp, ends up meeting with Riku far away from the collapsing islands moments later.
Pyrrhon smiles as bright as his godly namesake and says to Pit "Are you ok, citizen?" "You betcha!" The young angel states with a thumbs-up from his left hand. The teenage Overlord then says "Palutena, we're ready to return to Skyworld. We should consider ourselves lucky that the Aurum function entirely on electricity, huh?"
As the goddess of light summons forth a pillar of light to call Pit and Riku back, she replies with "I don't think that's going to happen again, but at least the planet isn't being ravaged for now, good work you two." Once both heroes were out of the way, Pyrrhon gets an excited grin on his face as he places his fists against his well-sculptured hips and says "Pyrrhon senses danger. And now…" As he turns to face the sky ahead of where he floated, the sun god notices an entire fleet of at least a hundred bizarrely crafted spaceships entering through the planet's atmosphere. With his heart tingling in joy, Pyrrhon finishes his earlier sentence with "Pyrrhon sees it…" and then immediately flies towards the fleet for battle…
Next Time: More Aliens!