Chapter Twenty-Five: Deadly Desires
YEAR STAR STAR: MONTH TWINK: DAY 4
It was moist. Cloudy, even. A place like this was not meant to have clouds, but here they are. Fire spews out of the large holes in the ground. Bugs crawl all over the floors, walls, and ceiling. It was cold. Colder than any other place in the castle. It is if it was a wasteland for the dead itself.
From there, there was a platform made of tough, durable stone. Big enough for ten individuals to topple over each other in a pyramid.
…That's what happened. I'm not kidding here. The heroes, from seemingly nowhere, drop from above, and topple over each other in an odd, but flashy way.
Unfortunately, poor Mario was at the bottom of the heap, being flattened by everyone else in the group. "Oof!" He lets out, air being squeezed out his lungs with each hero that drops on him. Fortunately enough, Soulola was light, and didn't hurt him when she landed on his head. "Sol Sol!" She thanks Mario, who nods back.
Link was on the top of the pile of heroes, and backflips off of them first. "OY! It looks like we're here, Mario! Smells musty and old as usual." Link shouts from above. Link has been to the Hazy Maze Cave before. One time, he went with Luigi, and they explored the depths of the cave to find a lost treasure. Link was quite the expert in treasure hunting.
"Is it now?" Jaraberutzu asks with flirty eyes. "Oh, Link. You're so smart!" She winks, but Link gives her a confused look. "Uh… thanks. All I needed to do was look around the place a bit. It's definitely the Hazy Maze Cave, though. That maze map on that wall… unmistakable." He concludes.
There was a map of the Hazy Maze. It would serve no purpose to them at this point, since they are looking for the Crystal Sun, and it could be anywhere. 'This is gonna be troublesome.' Geno thinks to himself. He wonders how he will find the Crystal Sun in such an immense, dark cave. 'We don't seem to have a way to pinpoint its location… we better find one… what if we used a different Crystal Sun to help us look for it?' He hypothesizes, looking back at Mario.
"Hey, Mario. Can I take a look at the Green Crystal Sun? The one we haven't used." Geno smirks. Mario wonders what he's up to. "Uh… sure, I guess. Here ya go." Mario replies without hesitation, taking out the Green Crystal Sun, and handing it to Geno. "Vivian, I'll also need the Magical Map." He says.
"Alright." Vivian says, wondering what Geno wants to do. She takes out the Tattle Log, and takes out the Magical Map. She dusts it off before giving it to him. "What'cha doing, Geno? You gonna do some magic thingy and help us find the Crystal Sun?" Adelenn asks politely and quickly.
"In a way. I'm trying to see if using this Crystal Sun and the Magical Map will create a pulse similar to what it does in the Sky Sanctum. I need a little help, though." He sighs. "Lupo. I'm going to have you attack the Crystal Sun. It needs an explosive power to get it started, but I can't have Link use flames; he'll destroy it."
"Oh, well, okay then." Link frowns, crossing his arms. Patricia looks at him and does the same thing. Adelenn looks at Patricia and also does the same thing.
"Use that 'Boom' thing when I tell you to. It seems useful." He finishes. Lupo smiles. "It's called the Blooming Boom, if that's what you wanted to know, lightweight." She states, and readies her hand. "Alright, just tell me when to do it and we'll be set, right?"
Geno nods. First, he takes the Crystal Sun, and covers it with the Magical Map. He then takes a moment to focus. "Geno Boost." He says, waving his left hand in a motion that increases the magical flow within the map. The map begins to pulse.
"THERE. Do it now!" Geno shouts. Lupo begins to slam her hand into the Crystal Sun. Once it makes contact, Lupo shouts her special word.
"BOOM!"
Instead of an explosion happening, the Crystal Sun begins to pulse as well. This time, it produces a green line of energy whenever it pulses, giving the light a more mysterious appearance. For a moment, it continues to do this without any changes to the surrounding environment.
But in a matter of seconds, there was feedback. Feedback in the form of a purple pulse of light. It pulses at the same beat as both the Magical Map and the Crystal Sun, indicating that this is the Crystal Sun they're looking for. "Gotcha." Geno says with a grin.
"Rawr! Rawrawr!" RAWR claps with his stubby hands. "Sol!" Soulola barks happily in response. They were both happy that Geno succeeded in his attempt to get a pulse. "I thought that this would be the one to work. We never tapped into its powers, so it would've been the one to use as a radar of some sort. If we use it as a radar, we'll find that other Crystal Sun." Geno explains.
"So… it looks like we're at a fork, though. The pulse seems to be going downward as well. There's only one place I can think of that would be this far under the ground." Mario states. "The spring."
Mario looks to the left of the forked path. "That should take us to the spring quicker. But… it's a little more dangerous." He mutters. There was a wooden door on the end of the small path to the left, but it requires them to jump a very long distance. The Pokémon would have trouble getting through the spiked chasm.
"Vivian, grab the Pokemon again, and take them to the other side of the chasm. Link, grab Adelenn. I'm afraid she'll slip or something." Mario commands, and everything he asked was done. Vivian takes Soulola and RAWR, and hurls them to the other side of the pit. Link puts Adelenn around his shoulder. "Come on, Adelenn. We can't have you slipping and falling." He smiles, taking out his Longshot to swing across the pit, even though he could easily jump it.
"Yaaay! Link is taking me for a ride, Geno! I'm flying!" She shouts happily, throwing her arms up and extending her wing, pretending to fly gracefully through the air. "That's hardly a ride, but good! Be careful though. You don't wanna hurt Link by accident." Geno shouts back as he jumps over the chasm. Jaraberutzu merely floats across, and Lupo performs one of the famous long jumps with Mario.
Geno tries to jump across perfectly, but slams his face across the cave's wall, and slumps downward onto the floor. "Ow…" He mumbles. He gets up before anyone could notice, but Soulola notices anyway. "So-ho-ho-hol!" Soulola laughs at poor Geno, who growls at her, and makes her retreat back into Link's messenger bag.
Link points at the door while looking at Mario. "Is this the right door, Mario?" He asks. Mario nods. "Yeah, but be careful. There's a giant ho-"
Suddenly, Link opens the door to see what was on the other side. He ends up falling into a bottomless pit.
"LINK!" Patricia screams, dashing towards the pit as fast as she could. She looks down to see where Link was falling. She couldn't see him at all. "LIIIIINK! YOU BETTER NOT BE DEAD, YOU JERK!" She starts shouting at the bottomless pit.
Even more sudden was the fact that Link's Longshot could be heard. Mario and Geno were able to hear it. "Huh?" They wonder. Adelenn was also able to hear it. "What's that sound? It sounds like a chain making a really weird stringy sound." She states. Patricia looks down at the bottomless pit to see Link's Longshot. "So he IS alive!" She growls.
The Longshot ends up sticking to her chest.
Patricia gulps. She puts on a face of pure shock and terror. "…Did I… did I get… pierced by… the Longshot… here?" She slowly mutters, her eyes wide open of pure confusion, waving her hand over the area in which she was stabbed by the harmless Longshot.
She feels the pull of the chain, realizing that Link was coming back up. "Whew. I almost broke my arm falling down here. I better be careful next ti-"
He realizes that he stuck his chain into Patricia's chest region shortly after ascending, and his eyes show true terror as well. "…Oops." He nervously chuckles, scratching his head.
He then lands back on the platform he was just on, receiving a fierce slap from Patricia. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" She growls, grabbing Link by the collar. "No, what makes you think that?" He replies, not angry at all by being accused. "You used the Longshot on my CHEST, you dummy. No way could you've done that by mistake!" She hits him on the head several times with her hand.
"Sorry, Ms. Grumpy Wagon. C'mere! You probably need a hug, babe." He smiles, proceeding to warmly hug Patricia, who was struggling to escape it, but then it transformed from a hug into a carry, and Link jumps across the pit with ease.
Mario and the others were unaware that Link was able to jump so well. "Mama Mia. That was actually good jumping." He smiles, and the rest of the heroes follow Link by gracefully jumping towards the other side of the massive hole.
Next, giant balls of stone were hurdling towards the heroes. Lupo and Mario grin, and both destroy the rocks with their bare hands. "Hmph." They both grunt, clearing their hands of cement, and clearing the way of more boulders.
"When did we get strong enough to fight nature itself, Jaraberutzu?" Vivian wonders. Jaraberutzu shrugs. "Dunno. It just came to us, I guess. I bet all of that fighting really helps us out in the long run." She says. "I mean, look at Adelenn. She's monstrously strong, but she's so thin and curvaceous. Makes me jealous a little!"
"What does 'curvaceous' mean? It sounds like a type of soup!" Adelenn wonders, easily hearing what Jaraberutzu says from a hundred feet away. "Whoa, what kind of hearing do you have!? You heard me all the way from here!? And with this kind of racket!?" She shouts over the voice of Mario and Lupo breaking boulders continuously. Adelenn giggles. "Heehee, you're so silly, Jara! I bet you can hear me just fine!"
Soon, the heroes were able to get underneath the terrible rockslide. It took a while, but everyone was able to get through with minimal problems.
There was a metal door. This time, Link decides to open it before going inside. He throws it open and checks to see if there was a trap behind it. Luckily, there was only a small room, with a large metal platform in the middle of it all.
"Hey, it's the elevator." Link smiles. "Luigi showed me this place before, but the way I got here was a little bit different. This is where the spring should be, right?" He wonders. Geno nods his head. "Yes. Hazy Maze Cave's spring should be down here. If we can get there, we might be able to get the Crystal Sun. It won't be easy, though. There might even be a Death down there." He replies.
"Don't worry about it! I'll beat this Death like he or she was a piece of floppy disk!" Adelenn squeals loudly, and everyone looks at her with a confused look. "…What?" Patricia says. "You know… Floppy disks can't do anything 'cuz they're floppy from being punched too much!"
"…Who teaches you this stu-"
"AUNT ROSA!" She giggles, and jumps onto the elevator. Her wing extends and folds in a flashy manner. "Let's go before we lose it!"
Everybody had no choice but to listen to Adelenn, and they all stood on the elevator. RAWR presses the button, and the platform descends. Deeper and deeper, it appears as though it becomes darker. However, it shortly became bright again.
"This is…" Patricia looks downward, and sees that there were windows in the elevator. When she peers through, she can see a wonderfully clean spring, with a slope going down into it. There were stairs that lead to the middle of the cave, but whatever was there was too small to see. She was more interested in the water, though.
"Guys, look. This place is huge!" Patricia shouts, calling the others to her side. The other heroes take a peek outside the window, and get a good view of the spring. "Wooow, it's so beautiful." Vivian says in awe. She wanted to gaze at it some more, but she knows that she has a job to do, as with the rest of the heroes.
They all get off of the elevator, and look around. They had no other choice but to go towards the spring. Adelenn walks first, and heads towards the spring.
"So, guys. If this Death is really mean and evil, I'm gonna say something like, 'OH, YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUGH!? I'M THE SECOND DEATH OF FEAR! I AM SCARY AND STUFF! RAAAAWR!' It'll work, I bet you!"
"SILENCE." Commands a voice, booming through the air.
Adelenn stops short. Her eye's pupil shrinks due to the shock of the voice she hears. With her long, flowing hair, she turns around to find the voice.
There was a man with white hair, and a t-shirt with a skull. He wore baggy pants, and a massive broadsword was at his side, also with an intimidating skull. He himself was as tall as Adelenn, but also very lean and strong. He sat on a throne, awaiting the heroes to come to him.
"Ah, so it looks as though the wonderful Adelenn and her puppets return. You really led them all the way here to get slaughtered by me? How wonderful." He smiles evilly.
"…Tarin…" Adelenn whispers angrily. Her face immediately becomes serious. She wasn't playing around anymore.
The other heroes besides Jaraberutzu and Soulola have met Tarin before. Just before he left for Don Tae to fight them. He looked even stronger than before.
"Puppets? What do you mean by puppets, Tarin?" Adelenn points at him, and he laughs hysterically. "HAHA! You don't remember? Fuego, that old coot! He told you to bring them to me so that I may kill them! And now, you've given me the chance to! I thank you very much, my wife." He says, laughing to himself.
Mario was confused. "Adelenn, you were supposed to trick us into getting killed by this guy?" Mario asks. He wasn't too sure about what's going on. "Yeah, when it was just you, Vivian, Geno and Lupo. But you guys aren't my enemy anymore, so that was long gone. I would never want to kill you guys!" She says. Geno looks at her in the eyes.
"She's telling us the truth. She can't lie to us; we're her friends. She has no reason to lie to us." Geno smiles, relieved that it really wasn't a trap at all. "Whoa, that's crazy. A trap to kill Mario? That's like, impossible! Mario can get out of pretty much any sticky problem when he's got friends around!" Link says. He knows that Mario was very skilled in the art of escaping tight situations.
"So… why did you come here if you aborted your mission? Did you want to beg for forgiveness? Did you want to be burned once more? Did you want me to make you suffer like usual for disobeying me? I'll have you know that you were weak from the beginning. Weakness is something we cannot have. Not in the Duce Family Tree." He gets up.
"I am the sixth Death of Desire, and I represent so proudly. My name is Tarin Duce, the second noble Demon Family of the current seven. Adelenn Kenlasca Boskra is now my wife, and there is nothing that any of you fools can do to stop me." He snickers maliciously.
Link was going to unsheathe the Master Sword, but Link and Geno stop him from going any further. "Don't. You'll destroy this place along with him if you fight Tarin. Let someone else handle this." Mario commands. Link was hesitant, but listens to Mario anyway.
"So, since you will all die anyway, I shall tell you why Adelenn is mine to deal with as I please. She is a special girl, and I loved her the moment I set eyes on her. I was greatly awaiting the chance that I would marry her. We almost did, but then that fool Fuego had to die, throwing off everything. I was so enraged. Shortly following that, Adelenn seemingly escaped to another planet using a Launch Star, and it broke as soon as she used it. My world was falling apart."
"I couldn't have that. Adelenn was and still is mine. I want her. I want her to breed a new line of Demons that will tear this little world apart. Nothing else should exist but the Demons, and I will make hundreds of millions of them if I have to." He explains.
"Do you know the curse that was placed upon us by the Goddess of the Stars? Her name is Rosalina. She placed a curse on Demons, forbidding them from reproducing for every one hundred years. We cannot have children for such a long time. It was outrageous. The other Void Demons were angry, and confused. 'What did we ever do to deserve this', we would ask. It was not fair…"
"…A curse… placed on the Demons… unable to reproduce for 100 years… It makes some sort of sense as to why Demons are not very common yet." Vivian exclaims. "This curse is the reason why they are not as high in numbers."
"BUT! There is one exception… there is one who is not influenced by this curse, and that person can continue to make Demon Children at will; no matter who it is, and no matter when. That one person…
"…Is myself."
Everyone holds their breath. They couldn't believe his words, but they also knew he was not lying. "Hehehehe… Surprised? I would be, if I were in your disgusting, inferior shoes. A man of my class shouldn't have to bother you. But I will continue. From the start, I was not under the influence of the curse. I was a free bird, free to breed with whoever I please. And this is where lovely Adelenn comes in. She's the perfect mother for children. She will be the commander of every single one of them!" Tarin laughs insanely, yet everyone stays quiet.
"Step aside, pigs. All I want is Adelenn, and I cannot have your filthy hands all over her." He smiles, and walks over to Adelenn.
"You're the pig." Adelenn growls.
Tarin stops moving. He picks up his ear a notch. He wasn't quite sure what Adelenn said to him. "Hmm? Did I hear something from your mouth? Did it go by something like-"
"YOU ARE THE PIG! A DISGUSTING, EVIL, DEMANDING PIG!" Adelenn screams at him, trying to supress her mana from him. Her eye begins to ooze it out, however. Tarin's left eye's pupil shrinks due to supreme anger. He balls up his hand.
"Might I remind you WHO you are TALKING TO!?" He yells, enraged by Adelenn's words. "You are talking to the man who loves you to DEATH! I will silence that FILTHY mouth of yours!" He extends his blood-red wings, and uses them to advance faster and faster towards her.
When he reaches her, he brings up his hand. "You are a disgrace. You dirty, filthy woman. You grew to be a shameless, gutless, powerless fool. And now, I shall silence that mouth of yours." He grumbles. He then swings his hand at Adelenn.
Geno catches his hand with his own.
"…I'm sorry? Did you call Adelenn filthy?" He whispers. He squeezes Tarin's hand, and Tarin's hand begins to hurt. He still keeps his cool. "Why, yes, pig. Why does it matter to you?"
"BECAUSE IF LINK IS NOT GOING TO MURDER YOU, IT WILL BE ME!" He looks up at Tarin with a deadly gaze. Geno then brings up his own hand.
He punches Tarin right in the gut, sending him to the cave walls. The wall caves in to suit Tarin's shape, as they were very durable. Tarin gets out of the wall quickly, and flies to his broadsword. "Is that the best you have? I hardly felt a thing." He dusts the debris off his shoulders.
"Hardly." Geno smirks.
Adelenn was upset. Geno was fighting Tarin by himself, and she knows how strong Tarin is. "Don't hurt yourself, Geno… we're counting on you to stay alive." She whispers to herself.
"Your cockiness is what will kill you tonight." Tarin chuckles.
"LESS TALKING, MORE FIGHTING, SCUMBAG!" Geno roars. Tarin proceeds to swing at Geno with the massive broadsword, but Geno dodges almost all of them. One makes contact, but Geno blocks it by grabbing it and throwing the sword with Tarin.
Tarin stabilizes with his wings, and flies towards Geno once more. This time, he starts to cut upward, and slams the sword down each time, not giving Geno any kind of opening to strike. From his hand, Geno shoots a metal cartridge at Tarin, and it shoots like a bullet, hitting Tarin in the head.
"GOTCHA!" Geno smiles.
Tarin merely removes the metal cartridge from his head, and without letting Geno know, he grabs him and slices Geno with the sword, causing him to slam into the wall.
"HEHEHEHE! AHAHAHAHA!" He laughs into the air. "Did you really think a bullet would stop me!? Do you think that it would stop Adelenn? Or the pink-haired Demon Lord?! NO! We are immune to technology such as that. Red Virus immunity is what gives us such power. Now you will see what it means to writhe in pain."
Tarin continues to grapple and attack Geno with the broadsword, each time making Geno cough harshly. "GENO!" Link growls, attempting to pull out the Master Sword once more. "Link, stop! We can't have you on a rampage! We told you this!" Jaraberutzu mutters, holding Link in place as best as she could. "But Geno's getting hurt out there! We gotta do SOMETHING!"
"It's okay! I'm… I'm gonna do this!" Geno shouts, spitting on Tarin's shirt. "Ha! Who's filthy now?" He adds just before being thrown into the wall again.
'Perfect. He's falling right for my trap.' Geno snickers. It may not seem like it, but Geno secretly enchanted himself with Geno Boost, enhancing his Defense extraordinarily. He takes a look at Adelenn while pretending to be depressed and hurt.
Just as he thought, Adelenn was beginning to be nervous. "Oh no! Geno! Geno! You're hurt! Don't die!" She cries softly, tearing up a little bit.
'Yes! Just as I thought!' He thinks to himself. Adelenn was already feeling a harsh emotion, and Geno wanted to build it up even more.
"What's he doing? There's no way Geno could lose to him." Mario wonders. Patricia then begins to scan Geno with the Helmet Siren. "You're right. His mana is still going strong. He hasn't weakened at all. But act natural, and see what he does." Patricia says.
Indeed, Geno was managing quite well, but his effort was not over. Tarin was continuing to beat and abuse Geno with punches, kicks, and even strangling. Geno was able to get out of these quite well, and letting some of them hit.
"No! Tarin, stop it! You're hurting my friend!" Adelenn tries to plead with him. All he does is laugh maniacally. "HAHAHAHA! You brought this upon yourself, my love! Now you will watch your friend die in front of me, like a fool." Tarin replies.
Geno looks beat up, and looks at Adelenn. "Look… Adelenn…" He coughs heavily, pretending to be dying. "I'm… okay. Don't worry about me. I'll protect you… from this poser."
"YOU FOOL!" Tarin shouts, pushing Geno to the floor. "You cannot defeat someone of a higher rank! It's as silly as a bug trying to defeat a Venus Fly Trap! It's futile! But… your efforts won't go in vain." He holds the sword against Geno's neck.
"No. No. No! NO! DON'T! PLEASE, DON'T! GENO'S MY FRIEND! DON'T KILL HIM!" Adelenn gets on her knees and starts begging for Geno's mercy.
Tarin scoffs. "Too late." He says, and raises his hand. He was about to administer the final blow to Geno. 'Come on, Adelenn. Come on, come on, come on, come on! I told Rosalina that I'd be careful about this!' He thinks to himself, hoping that his façade would help him.
"Goodbye, enemy of mine. It was fun while it lasted." Tarin chuckles. "I won't even let you say any last words. Your life was meaningless anyway." He finishes, and lowers his sword to execute.
"DON'T YOU EVEN DARE HURT MY GENOOOOOOO!"
Suddenly, a sound of gas from Adelenn's Voided Eye appears. A black mist quickly escapes the Voided Eye. It engulfs the entire cave, and muffles all fighting and sound. "WHOA!" All of the heroes shout. They were confused. All of their senses were being blocked. They couldn't see, feel, or hear anything…
…It was as if nothing was there for a moment, or to even begin with…
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE END.