Pit coughed and gasped for air as the sides of the snake's throat pushed him down towards its stomach. He felt like he was suffocating. It was unbelievably hot and muggy in there, and it stunk with the smell of acid and carrion coming from the snake's stomach and mouth.

Feeling a sudden spark in his will to fight back, he charged up an arrow, and shot it down the snake's esophagus. To his surprise, his bow flashed yellow, and two other arrows edged in pink also flew out, at an angle. The upper half of the snake exploded, and Pit fell to the ground, drenched in snake blood.

"Pit, you okay?" Chiron ran up to him.

"Yeah..." He slowly got to his feet, his sides heaving. "That was...a little scary, though."

Apparently, the snake had some physical connection to Medusa because she was howling with pain. She glanced that severed snake body, then glared at the angel.

"That was very mean of you, Pit. Luckily, I have a gift for you. Hope you like it."

As if on cue, a bright green snake slithered out of her hair. It was brighter than the others, and had bright pink eyes.

"Deal with this rat of an angel, my lovely Tanatos."

The snake smirked devilishly, then flew out of the goddess' dreadlocks, and down to where Pit was.

"So you're the little angel Medusa once had in her custody? Good luck on trying to save your precious Palutena."

Without warning, Tanatos lashed out at the angel. Trying to ignore the pain, he spread his wings and took off, just narrowly avoiding getting bitten. He then prepared a charged arrow, and shot it skyward, and several other arrows followed, raining down on the battlefield. Tanatos shrieked in pain, then lashed out with his long tail, grabbing Pit by his neck. Pit let out a weak cry of distress as he was being strangled, tightly gripping the serpent's tail in desperation. Chiron didn't hesitate to shoot an arrow at the snake's face. It missed, but then the centurion retrieved Pit's bow, and slashed the creature's belly, making him drop Pit. The angel was flung onto the ground, coughing and panting.

Chiron helped Pit get up, then handed him his bow. The serpent lashed out again just as Pit released a charged arrow from his bow. The arrow went down its throat. Tanatos screamed in agony, then used his tail to swat the bow out of Pit's hands, and lash out again. But instead of running, the angel charged.

"Pit, what are you doing?!"

Chiron ran up to stop the angel, but was surprised to see what had resulted. Pit was standing there, his shield up, and his other arm guarding his face. The snake's jaws had come down on his shield, and the armored part of his arm.

"I got this, Chiron," Pit called out, although he was gradually being pushed back. "Just...leave this to me."

Pit returned his sharp glare to Tanatos, his teeth bared in a snarl. The serpent narrowed his eyes, and tried to bite down harder, but couldn't with the shield between his jaws.

For a while, the two stood in a stalemate, neither willing to back down. But after some time, Tanatos decided to try and force the angel into letting up by using his tail like a whip, and struck Pit's injured wing. Pit cried out at the sharp pain, but refused to give up.

Pit grunted as he tried to reposition his other arm, but couldn't. He could feel his strength draining out of him as he tried to hold off the massive serpent. And it didn't help with the creature whipping him with its tail, trying to force him to let up. As the snake struck the unprotected part of his back, he glanced around briefly, in search of some way to deal his own attack, when his gaze fell upon his bow. It was lying on the ground, not far from him. Flicking his gaze back and forth between Tanatos, and his bow, he suddenly thought of an idea.

He sharply leaned forward, and bit the serpent's snout, burrowing in his canines. The snake arched back, and screeched, a moment which the angel took advantage of and retrieved his bow. He shot a charged arrow at the snake, then immediately launched into a string of direct attacks.

Tanatos screamed in agony as Pit relentlessly poured on the attacks. At the next chance he had, he struck the angel in the face. Pit yelped as the snake's tail hit his eye, causing his eyelid to start bleeding.

Trying to ignore the pain of his eye, he prepared another charged arrow. Just as the snake lashed out, he shot the charged arrow down its throat. Like what had happened once before, two pink arrows followed, going in opposite angles, and Tanatos screeched in agony as he went up in a cloud of white energy.

"Nicely done, Pit."

Pit turned to his mentor and smiled, then turned his attention to Medusa. She snarled upon seeing that the angel had defeated her commander.

"I should've killed you when I had the chance. That's my greatest mistake. You should've died with the others."

She conjured a huge ball of energy and levitated it in her hand.

"And I'm going to make sure that happens."

Before Pit could do anything, Medusa fired the energy ball at him. But just when he braced himself to endure it, a streak of brown and white flew by. Pit looked over to see Chiron lying on the ground. He'd thrown himself in front of the angel, and taken the hit himself. Chiron feebly raised his head.

"It's...up to you...to bring down Medusa...I can...no longer...assist you..."

The centurion closed his eyes, and went limp, unconscious.

Medusa laughed when she saw what the centurion had done, and she shot several more small balls of flaming energy at him. Pit flashed the mirror shield in front of him, deflecting two balls back at the goddess. They hit two snakes in the face, killing them.

Pit took flight to avoid being hit by a spiky ball of energy, then started directly attacking the goddess. Black blood dripped down her sides and her arms. Medusa screeched in pain, then fired several lasers at the angel. One hit the wounded spot on his face, and he bit back a cry of shock.

Rather awkwardly, he flew backwards, to gain some distance, and shot a charged arrow skyward, sending light arrows raining down on the arena. Medusa fired a barrage of projectiles, which the angel dodged, and the two once again engaged in shooting projectiles relentlessly at each other. However, Medusa was taking notably more damage than Pit, due to her large size and having limited space to move around making her easy to hit, compared to the little angel who could easily move all around the arena.

"This is getting ever so tiresome."

Without warning, she lashed out at him, and managed to hook a claw on his back, between his wings. Pit cried out in pain, and fought to try and get free, but it only made things worse, as the goddess' claw burrowed further into his back with each movement. As the pain started to become unbearable, he quit struggling, and hung his head in defeat. Medusa held him up to her face and smirked.

"Say goodbye, little angel."

With her other hand, she stabbed the angel in the stomach, and flung him down to the ground. His bow flew out of his hands, and landed next to Chiron, who'd come back to his senses. Unsteadily getting onto his knees, he saw Medusa towering over Pit, who was lying on the ground, seemingly out for the count.

"Pit!"

Medusa turned around upon hearing the centurion call out, and she averted her attention to him. He felt a slight twinge of fear, as he was in no condition to fight alone, but at the very least, he could distract Medusa long enough for Pit to recover.

On a whim, he grabbed Pit's bow, and shot an arrow in Medusa's face, then threw it over to where Pit was. The centurion then retrieved his own bow, and continued to shoot at her.

Pit winced as he feebly reached over and grabbed his bow. Everything hurt, and moving at all sent excruciating pain surging through his entire body. Using his bow for support, he tried to pick himself up, whimpering at the pain that seized him with each movement. As he stood up, he found that it even hurt to breathe, as the impact with the ground had broken part of his rib cage. Wiping the blood away from his eyes, he saw Chiron on his knees, shooting arrows at the goddess.

Suddenly, there was a loud r-r-r-rukh, r-r-rukh! from above, and Medusa looked up as a large white bird came down like an arrow, and pierced her eyelid with its sharp beak. A gannet. Two more followed, and all three birds swarmed around the goddess, like they were trying to distract her. A tern and two owls joined them.

Pit was shocked to see these birds flying around the goddess and attacking her, and it gave him a sudden energy spark. He spread his wings and took flight, and joined the birds in swarming around Medusa, like a swarm of shootflies. Medusa furiously clawed at them, but was unable to hit them. The birds eventually flew off, seeing that Pit was managing to hold her off.

"I am not going down like the others did."

He prepared a charged arrow in his bow. But he exerted every bit of his concentration and power into the arrow. The thing glowed pure white, brighter than any arrow he'd ever charged before.

"I will defeat you, Medusa! Time for you to face the light!"

And he released the arrow. The bow flashed white, and several blue-green arrows appeared and fired out at an angle outwards but then changed direction and flew to the target of the main arrow. He shot a barrage of yellow ones behind him, followed by several pink ones that homed in on the goddess. He ended the move by shooting several blue arrows into the air that came down as beams of pure light. The last one struck Medusa in the chest.

Medusa stumbled back, clutching her chest. She growled at the angel, her one eye gleaming with a hunger for revenge.

"You may have won this time...but this isn't over yet...I will be back, and I will put your little soul in its rightful place..."

Moments later, the dark goddess disintegrated into a black cloud of energy that was swept away by a gentle breeze that blew by.

Pit stood there for a moment in shock, then looked over to the entrance to Palutena's temple. There was a bright flash from inside, and the angel shielded his face from the bright light. As the light died down, he looked up to see Palutena emerge from the entrance of the temple.

"Well done, Pit. You've completed your quest."

Palutena lightly rested her hand on his head. His entire figure glowed momentarily, as the Three Sacred Treasures were released from their user. Pit looked down at himself with a start, then saw the light of the treasures levitating in her hand. The light was sealed into a casket and sent up in a shaft of light.

"They will be kept safe, hidden out of reach. And in return for all you have done, I give you this."

She gestured for Pit to tilt his head forward, and she gently placed something on his head, nestling it down into his hair.

"This golden laurel wreath is a sign of my gratitude, and your position as an angel in Skyworld."

Pit reached around and traced his fingers along the thin leaves of the wreath, then looked up at the goddess, and smiled. Looking out at the vast sky, as it turned red with the setting sun, he saw a group of birds fly by, each of a different species.

A white tern with a black crest and silver wings. A red and brown hawk with clear blue eyes. A dappled brown sparrow with cream-colored wings. Two owls, one pale brown with bright green eyes, and the other golden with nicks and holes in its wing and tail feathers. Three gannets, white with light yellow heads and black wing tips. And two white storks with brown eyes and bright orange beaks.

Each of the birds called as they passed by, soaring off into the distance in the direction of the sun, like angels heading towards the light of the heavens.