Watcher's Cape:

"Hit the lever! HIT THE LEVER!" yelled Marissa.

"I don't know what I'm doing!" Machula shouted. "Maki, I need you to throw me over to that ledge over there and – oh c'mon!"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, KING BOO?!" Marissa screamed. "Are you serious?! We can't get past the first level of adventure mode?!"

"We're gonna be here all day, aren't we?" muttered Maki.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tamara snapped. It was near noon when he rushed into the room in the upper level of their mansion to find Marissa, King Boo, Machula, and Maki all sitting in front of a sizable TV.

"Can't you see the screen?" King Boo replied. "We're playing 'Super Smash Bros. Climax' – based on the real life Super Smash Bros. Tournament! That is the hell that is going on here!"

"Help me!" Maki cried, slamming the joystick around in all directions.

"Just stay back and pick 'em off with your blaster!" exclaimed King Boo. "They're Goombas! They don't do anything but run at you!"

"Wow, it really is based on real life," muttered Tamara.

"Pick 'em off with the blaster!" King Boo repeated.

"No, that'll take too long!" Maki replied. "I don't wanna waste anyone time!"

"You're wasting everyone time by dying," Machula taunted. "And you're butchering everyone grammar!"

"Tarzan-speak, Kong-lingo," said Marissa, trying to imitate a primitive voice. "Everyone come, we must win fight, must win game!"

"I'm under pressure – screw grammar!" Maki snapped.

King Boo shook his head. "Look, you don't gotta charge shot them into oblivion – just jump on their heads! No – why did you throw the gun away? It still had charge in it!"

"It did?" Maki asked.

"I can't figure out how to get my guy to jump up over there!" Machula growled. "I've tried everything but he just puffs up and tries to float over."

"Yeah, 'cause you wanted to choose that garbage-tier blue penguin guy!" Marissa replied, laughing. "Oh, look at me! I got a giant frickin' hammer and I'm fat! La-dee-FRICKIN'-DA! I should be in Happy Feet, but I'm stuck tap dancing here with you jackasses!"

"Alright, so, can we get back to something of substance?" asked Tamara. "What about going over the preparations for the coming Blood Moon? How about checking out the current state of the Central Castle and their relationship in regards to the rest of Sarasaland? What about-"

"Tamara," Marissa muttered. "Just... Just... Okay?"

"Yeah, c'mon man!" Maki said. "We've been at it for a while! We're taking a break!"

"An indefinite break," Marissa added, laughing like a kid.

Tamara looked at the demon witch like she had gone mad. Oh wait; she did already, he said in his mind.

"What's up with this woman and her hair?" asked King Boo. "It's like every attack I make, she has to involve her hair."

"Maki!" Marissa screamed. "Swing the remote! Swing the remote! DAMNIT! NO! AGAIN! QUIT WASTING OUR LIVES ON FRICKIN' GOOMBAS!"

"Maki, you're the pink puff dude," said Machula. "Just suck everything up."

Maki nodded. "Okay, let me try this – woops!"

"Not me, you cone-hat dunderhead!" King Boo screeched.

"You know what would be messed up?" asked Marissa. "It's like, we play through this game, and then we find out that the Sarasa girl's a playable character-"

"It'll be training to beat her!" Maki remarked, laughing.

"Nah, I don't think we would ever see that," said King Boo. "Oh, but you know what – we've been seeing this too often-"

"That's it!" shouted Marissa. "I've had it with these monkey-fighting Goombas in this Monday-to-Friday game!"

"That makes no sense, Marissa!" Machula yelled.

"Now they're throwing spikes down on us from the air," King Boo muttered. "They're just dropping out of the air with no rhyme or reason!"

"MAKI!" Marissa screamed. "WHY DID YOU EAT ALL THE FOOD?! YOU'RE ALREADY AT ZERO PERCENT!"

"I thought I could store it for later," Maki replied.

"Well, yeah, if you want us to eat your barf!" yelled Marissa.

"You can be heard a mile away," said Tamara. "This is craziness up here-"

"Yo – shut up, Tamara," Marissa snapped. "What the hell are you laughing at, Maki? Suck them all up already!"

"Why don't we just spam smash attacks?" suggested King Boo. "I mean, do we really need anything else?"

"Not if you're a noob," said Maki.

"This is actually the farthest we've ever gotten and – GOOMBAS!" Marissa groaned. "Again! This is ridiculous. There's so many of them. So dumb. They just get killed automatically – they're throwing themselves to die!"

"Look, Lord Arkana," Tamara impatiently said. "Cerberus should be close to resurrection, but the rest of the hellhounds are getting restless, so-"

"Oh my damn – Tamara!" moaned Marissa. "Can you just be cool? Just once? Please? Can you just once be cool? Tamara? Please? Just once? Can you just be cool? Please? One time? Once? Please?"

Tamara cocked his head to the side and gave the group a weird look, then casually walked out the room. The group heard him muttering, "I need an aspirin."

"What?! WHAT?!" Marissa screamed at the TV. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?! THE FIRST NON-GOOMBA ENEMIES WE GOT TO AND THEY KILL US ALL?!"

"To be fair, they deflected your fireballs to set off the bombs," said Maki. "Next time, don't choose the Italian guy in overalls, and we won't have to worry about getting blown off screen."

"Hey, he has an 'M' on his hat!" Marissa snapped. "That stands for Marissa! Case in point."

"Oh sweet," said Machula. "Look; I picked flowers."

Marissa gave Machula a strange, annoyed look. "Wha – get the hell away from me."


The portal opened to transport the Kruna and Neva to the beginning of the northeastern peninsula Geno had described to them. Ramona and Andrew had tried to bridge their technique closer to Watcher's Cape itself, but they encountered some sort of bizarre, unexplainable interference that prevented them from doing so. Where they ended up was more inland than they would've liked, but they were close enough to be considered within walking distance.

The environment around them was a set of ruins scattered among the rocky terrain that otherwise disrupted the flatness of the landscape. The sky above had a reddish hue towards Watcher's Cape, yet was normal in the opposite direction. The atmosphere had a very mystical, ethereal, and strikingly eerie feel to it.

A short trip through the ancient remains brought the team to a coastline that led into a very thin peninsula no wider than an eighth of a mile but nearly ten times that in length. Off at the end of the projection of land was an arch that appeared to be a gateway to a chain of five expansive bridges, each one of substantial length and connected by a column of land jutting up from the waters of the bay. The bridges seemed to serve as a continuation of the curve of the peninsula as they led further away from the mainland. The end destination at the conclusion of the bridges was an island far off in the distance in the shape of a metallically fortified mountain that looked like it had a face.

"Something tells me the depressed mountain is Culex's Chamber," Bowser said.

As they made their way to the start of the peninsula, the elemental wielders noticed not just the silence of the area but the apparent lack of any form of complex life. The environment was barren, as if it had been long abandoned and never returned to. Daisy and Warra both found it quite odd, considering that Watcher's Cape was not that far away from the rest of Sarasaland.

"Ruins, red sky, lack of both wild and intelligent life," Warra murmured. "There's something off about this place."

"I'm not sensing anything malevolent around here," Andrew said.

"Neither am I," Ramona added.

"I don't think any of us are," stated Bowser. "There's just a mystique about this place that's really powerful."

"Would you say, transcendent, Bowser?" Daisy asked. "Maybe it's the purified chakras of mine, but this area seems surreal to the point of being mythical." Ever since she had awoken from the Silent Realm, everything around her had a different feel to it. The world felt weightless to her, and could feel her aura pulsating at a rate not before realized. She wondered to what the extent would Geno's lessons affect her body.

"Whatever it is, it's making me feel funny," Bowser replied. "Anything wicked around here? I don't think so."

"So quit being the guy who looks left-right-left before crossing the street, Warra," said Andrew.

"That's yet to be seen, you guys," said Warra. "We don't know what lies ahead."

"And we won't know if we stop walking just to sit around and ponder it," Daisy said.

Once the group made their way to the large stone arch, they passed underneath and trekked the length of the first bridge. It must've taken almost five whole minutes just to reach the first plot of land sticking up from the water, but they were met with an uncomfortable sight once they got there. The chunk of land was split in two right across the middle. The chasm must have spread about fifty yards, with nothing but a long, lengthy drop to the water below.

"I don't think I can jump that," said Ramona. "What about you guys?"

Marut put a hand up. "I can!"

"I want to say I can," Daisy said. "Crystal Grip'll get me to cling to the wall if I'm short and miss it."

"I might," stated Neva, not adding anything more.

"Is that it? Anybody else?" Ramona asked. "No?"

"Here's a thought," said Athelstan. "Why not just let me shift the terrain a little so we can make the jump?"

"Here's another thought," Andrew said. "Why don't we jump and let Marut push us over to the other side?"

Athelstan shrugged. "I don't know. Which one makes more sense?"

"Which one's more fun?" Andrew asked.

"Can we just go?!" Daisy growled. "I don't have the patience to be wasting time like this!"

"If I may present a little thought experiment; why is there a chasm here in the first place?" asked Warra. "Obviously, if there are bridges leading up to Culex's Chamber that connect each of these upward projections of land, then why wouldn't there be a bridge to connect this marginally shorter gap? This land was divided on purpose – Culex must not want anyone entering his territory."

"That's too bad," said Bowser. "We've got to get Daisy back to normal, and this is the only way we know how, so we're crossing over that chasm and moving down that second bridge."

"So, Athelstan," Andrew said. "Did Rosalina by any chance happen to give you a Pendant of Flight that you didn't tell us about earlier either?"

"That would've been helpful," the Kruna of Stone replied, taking out his spear. "But let's just do it this way." He jammed his tool into the ground and projected an extension of the rocky terrain to make the jump more manageable for everyone. "And Marut can blow us over if we're short."

Since the extension was narrow, they had to go one person at a time. Bowser went first, leaping and then using his Whirling Fortress move to carry him over to the other side. Ramona, Athelstan, Warra, and Andrew then made the next jumps and had Marut blow them over. Neva made the jump on her own, leaving Daisy and Marut. Up until now, the process had been smooth. Daisy went for her jump, but a fierce wind kicked up just before she made it all the way over. The gust was unusually swift, and put an end to Daisy's forward momentum. She was blown laterally, and would have fallen to a watery grave had she not caught the side of the chasm and latched her hands into the rock wall. Her Crystal Grip worked just as well in her Betedaimon form as it did in her real body.

Panicking, Marut launched himself over to the other side and then looked over the edge to bring a gust of wind that blew Daisy back up from the drop. She touched down her feet next to her team, none the worse for her experience. The others let out sighs of relief.

"I swear, I did not bring in that first gust!" Marut exclaimed, frantic with his words.

"It's alright, calm down, Marut," Daisy replied. "Freak circumstance is all it was."

"So does that mean there's more freak circumstances ahead?" asked Neva.

"It's not freak," said Warra. "That's just what happens for trying to have fun in situations like this."

"Hey, loosen up, why don't ya?" Daisy said. "We're just going to go visit Culex."

"No, I'm not going to loosen up!" Warra snapped. "What about the trials Geno was talking about?"

"Are you suggesting gusts of winds are trials?" Neva muttered with sarcasm.

"You really should just relax, Warra," said Daisy. "We just need to cross four more bridges and we're at Culex's Chamber. We don't gotta worry about anything else but that, trials or no trials."


King Sarasa's address right outside of the Central Castle to the people of Castle Town garnered a large audience, and rightfully so. The event up north in the Chai Kingdom could not be ignored, and the more time passed, the more concerned people became. Confusion and disorder had already started to rise after word got out about the happenings at the Great Canyon. Naturally, a large majority of the citizens throughout Sarasaland stuck by their king. But now, more than ever before, there was a significant chunk of the population that didn't know what to think of their leader. A small but noticeable amount of people made a serious effort in questioning the king and his intentions. Even though there was never a time where his control over Sarasaland had been shaken as much as it was then and there, King Sarasa was confident that it would resolve itself over time.

"As I have already said at the beginning of our gathering this morning, the destruction of Chai City saddens me," King Sarasa projected through the mic. "It is a hard hit to Sarasaland. None of us would have ever conceived – let alone wanted to see – one of our most productive cities burnt down in such a manner. It is a sad day for us all, but we can rebuild, and New Chai City will be stronger than all that came before, I assure you all of that!"

The crowd gave their usual cheers for King Sarasa. Nothing seemed any different from past addresses and speeches he gave. My people, he thought. "And don't forget; in just a couple more weeks, we'll be having our annual Sarasaland Harvest Moon Festival! Let's have a high turnout this year to show our support for this grand nation!"

At that point, a melodic chant of "Sarasaland" erupted from the crowd. After spending nearly four hours on, around, over, under, and through the subject of both the Great Canyon and Chai City, answering questions, and giving his first takes and reactions on the great fire, King Sarasa had nothing left to say regarding the matter that he didn't already touch on before. He gave a few more closing statements and comments to wrap things up, after which the huge mass of people began to disband and return back to their lives and duties. The king stayed outside for a little while as the crowd continued to diminish and as his associates cleared his setup. A little boy and a girl walked up to the king, a unique shirt in each of their hands.

"Can you sign our stuff, Mr. King Sarasa?" asked the girl. They both held out their shirts to him and pulled out pens from their pockets.

King Sarasa made a hearty chuckle, reaching for the shirts and pens. "Oh, that's adorable! How old are you two kids?"

"I'm eight," the girl replied.

"I'm six," the boy mumbled, looking shy.

"Those are great ages to be at, you two," King Sarasa said with merriness. "You've got your whole lives ahead of you and all the time in the world to decide who you want to be. Who knows? Maybe someday, you kids'll grow up to be just like me."