Mario and Luigi landed on what appeared to be the base of a tall mountain. The weather was very pleasant, almost like it was a typical summer day at the Mushroom Kingdom. The mountain had the shape of a perfect cone with more leverage at the bottom of the mountain and a pointy tip at the top of it. The ridge was also spiraling so scaling to the top of it would require a lengthy walk or run to the top. There were a few gaps in the mountain, due to constant eroding of it, that if one were to fall, it would mean certain death for them. The mountain was also covered in very tall mushrooms that would probably be used by the Mario Brothers to travel very big gaps in the mountain's spiral. Both brothers stared at the top of it, thinking to themselves of how far they would have to go in order to reach it since they believed the tip contained the Power Stars.

"Wow that is a gigantic task for us." Mario thought as he continued staring at it, then looked toward Luigi. Mario knew Luigi was thinking the same thing as he saw an annoyed expression across his face as Luigi was getting tired of the different worlds that were coming across. Mario then cast a smirk upon Luigi to which Luigi turned his attention to, curious as to why Mario was deeming a smirk towards him.

"What's with the face?" Luigi asked, with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"So, is this the challenge you wanted Luigi." Mario replied as he pointed to the tip of the mountain, which both Brothers believed was the objective for this world. "Since you felt bad about being none in the past world." Mario then chuckled at the minor folly for his brother, which only got him more irritated in the mission, since Mario was rubbing it in.

"Shut up and let's just scale this go- damn mountain." Luigi said as he walked towards the pathway the Mario Brothers needed to go in order to start ascending the mountain. The Mario brothers then made their journey, with Mario on point, suspicious as there was no Koopas in sight. "Where do you think the Koopas are at?" Luigi asked, as he looked in both directions, determined to find at least a trickle of the Koopa Empire in this world, as the environment seemed disturbingly quiet for them.

"Who knows?" Mario replied as he also kept his eye out on any Koopa troops present as they came across a field of very tall mushrooms in the near distance. "But it could be like that other world we went to where there were absolutely no Koopa troops present."

"Yeah but instead we came across Boos, who are much more dangerous in my opinion."

"I guess you're right. But at least there were no Koopa troops to accompany them."

"Point taken." Luigi replied as they neared the field of mushrooms. The Mario Brothers were both astonished at the height of the mushrooms, as it seemed like there not growing from the mountain itself, but rather from the ground that was being hidden from them by the immense altitude level they were at now.

"How far dup do you think we are Luigi?" Mario asked as he backed away from the gap, a little paranoid that he might fall down into an abyssal gap until he splattered on the ground.

"I don't know." Luigi replied. Luigi then hacked up something from his throat, which Mario was grossed out by, and then spit it out into the gap that lay before them. Luigi noticed it still going until he couldn't see it anymore, surprised that it was still descending to the ground. "Guess I'm not founding that way." Luigi then cast a sheepish smile, to which Mario was not amused by.

"That was disgusting Luigi." Mario said as he made a gagging reaction with his hands and neck.

"You asked me how far down it was to fall, and I wanted to do a little science experiment."

"Well do me a favor Luigi. Never do science experiments again around me."

"No promises." Luigi replied with a little smirk of his own, causing Mario to roll his eyes as they kept moving down the pathway that seemed to avoid the gap where the field of mushrooms was located. As they were halfway across the gap, a group of Koopa archers sprang from the mushrooms.

"NOW!" Yelled one of the Koopas as they opened fire, causing Mario and Luigi to dodge them while still maintaining their footing on the narrow pathway they lay before them.

"It's an ambush!" Yelled Mario as he quickly put on his fire flower power up.

"You expected any different from these guys?" Luigi rhetorically asked as he did the same thing.

"No I didn't." Mario then eyed the stems from which the mushrooms, that the Koopas were on, had and Mario began to formulate a plan. "Shoot for the stems. They'll burn up quickly." Luigi silently nodded as they began to aim for the huge mushroom stems, causing the mushrooms to burn up quickly, leaving nothing left for the Koopa archers to stand on.

"AGHHHHHHH!" cried the Koopas as they fell into what seemed like a bottomless gap until they had landed on the eventual ground, splattering them to death. Mario and Luigi looked down, as they could still hear the screams of the falling Koopa troops, until they had stopped instantly which was followed by a sickening crack of their shells. They then paused a moment to get some rest before venturing forward.

"Hey," Luigi said trying to make a wisecrack. "At least we know how far the fall is now."

"Hey I guess you're right." Mario said as the brothers both chuckled at that dark joke. They then moved forward to the next obstacle that the mountain had in store for them. They got up to a point where they saw a huge waterfall with a log being the connecting point between a huge gap. Both brothers knew that this was the only way to get around the gap as there didn't seem to be an alternate pathway that they could have taken. "Well Luigi, let's make like beavers and beat this wood."

"You know that was a horrible joke right?" Luigi sarcastically asked, causing Mario to cast an unamused look.

"Just shut up and get on the damn log." Mario replied as they both made their way across the log bridge, unbeknownst to them that there was some Koopas at the top of the waterfall who were equipping fire arrows to their bows.

"Burn the wood boys!" One of the Koopa archers shouted as they shot their arrows at the log, causing the log to burn up quickly and disintegrating almost instantly. Within that time, Mario and Luigi could see the log crumbling beneath them. This made the Mario Brothers resort to drastic measures.

"JUMP!" Yelled Mario as both brothers leaped as far as they could as the log crumbled to pieces just as they barely grabbed the ledge of the other side of the gap as they tried to pull themselves up to carry on with their journey.

"HURRY UP AND FIRE AGAIN!" Yelled the same Koopa as the archers aimed for the bodies of the Mario Brothers knowing with a few arrows, they would have inclined to let go of the ledge just from the shock that the pain of being stuck with arrows in their bodies would bring. As the archers fired their next set of arrows, the Mario Brothers hoisted themselves onto the ground and rolled out of the way of the arrows. The Mario Brothers took another second to gather themselves to continue with the rest of the journey.

"You good Luigi?" Mario asked, giving him a thumbs up. Luigi returned the thumbs up with his own hand.

"I'm fine. Let's a Go!" Luigi replied as they continued further up the mountain eventually facing the archers at the top of the waterfall.

"GET EM BOYS!" Another one of the archers cried out as their fired another set of arrows that missed the Mario Brothers again as the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom returned their volley with a set of fireballs, which hit the Koopas and made them run out towards the ledge of the waterfall and falling towards the huge gap, plummeting towards their deaths.

With the last of the Koopa threat gone from the waterfall, the Mario Brothers continued scaling the last bits of the mountain. When they reached the top of the mountain, the Mario Brothers rested for what seemed like a half an hour, exhausted after scaling the very tall mountain that they were on.

"MAMA MIA!" Yelled both of the brothers as they collapsed at the walkable ground of the top of the mountain, finding the Power Stars in a nearby chest.

"At least we got the Power Stars from this place." Mario said in a cheerful tone as he grabbed the six Power Stars, satisfied with the prospect that this world was done. "We also a got a bit of exercise."

"Yeah, in which you needed." Luigi retorted as he pointed to Mario's torso.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" Mario shouted in anger, thinking that Luigi was calling him fat.

"You know what I mean Mario." Luigi replied as he looked down at the mountain towards the point where they had entered the world. "By the way, you do realize that we have to go back down in order to leave this place right?" Luigi then could sense a small expression of utter annoyance which Luigi was enjoying.

"DAMMIT!" Yelled Mario as he felt like throwing the Power Stars until realizing that they were the reason they came here in the first place. "Well," Mario then let out a big sigh as he prepared to speak again. "Let's just climb back down the mountain I guess." With that, the Mario Brothers started the trek back down the mountain, as least having the assurance that no Koopa threat would be meeting them as they scaled back down the mountain until they got back to the point from which they entered the world. They then left the world, ending back at Toadstool Castle again.

"So where do we go from here?" Luigi asked and then looked back at Mario, who had a bit of fright in his face as he remembered the next painting. His face got paler and paler as he kept thinking about it. "Mario…are you ok?" Luigi then waved a face in front of his brother as Mario promptly shoved it away.

"Just f-follow m-me." Mario replied as he started walking towards one of the rooms that the rotunda had to offer, which housed a hallway that diverged into two different paths. The Mario Brothers had walked up to the intersection, in which they housed two different sized paintings with the same image: two Goombas next to each other while looking at each other.

"So I'm guessing we go towards the smaller painting?" Luigi asked, hoping that was the right answer. Mario shook his head, which Luigi feared might be the case.

"No Luigi. Unfortunately…we have to go towards the 'other' painting." Mario then pointed towards the larger painting as both brothers made their way towards it. "I warn you Luigi. These creatures we will face are much tougher than your average Koopas."

"Even Bowser?" Luigi asked as he started to tremble with each word that Mario was saying.

"No. But it a step below Bowser." Mario replied as both brothers reluctantly jumped towards the larger painting, unsure if they were ready to take on their next challenge.