Chapter 36: Dawn of Genesis I: The Honor Bound Seven

1 hour, 20 minutes remain...

Later that day, after they had finished listening to Alex's tale and comforted him, the group walked through the sun drenched streets of Toad Town to go to E. Gadd's lab. The trip was, not unsurprisingly, quite uneventful. As they descend down the laboratory's stairs, they see the Professor standing before the active Stargadd, eagerly awaiting the group's arrival. The moment that one of the heroes sets foot on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, The Professor turns his body around to greet them. "Oh ho ho ho, welcome one and all..." He says. After approaching the elderly professor, he gets ready to explain one key bit of information to the group before they head off. "Now, you should know something about the Stargadd before you head off." Folding his little arms behind his back, he begins to pace back and forth as he talks. "This trip you are about to take shall be one-way only...Once you enter, you cannot return."

"And why is that?" Alex asks. "My portal was designed to teleport only a certain amount of people a day...You are just barely exceeding that number in your group, so the moment you all step through the portal the machine will shut down instantly..." "So we should try and get rid of the veil that surrounds the temple while we are in there, correct?" Says Mario in response. E. Gadd slowly nods his head, then turns towards the group and holds his arms out in front of his body. "That would be most wise...In the mean time, I will try and restore the machine's energy as soon as possible so you can return back here after completing your mission." After that, the professor begins to pace back and forth once again, mumbling to himself about ways to break away from the restrictions of time-space travel that plague his machine. With nothing else important to say, Mario politely asks the professor if they can move on. Once the professor chuckles to himself he swiftly removes himself from the heroes path, allowing them to advance towards the swirling mass of energy that will take them to the final temple.

The moment their bodies make contact with the portal, they find themselves hurtling through multiple dimensional planes. Strange sights pass by their eyes, like massively grotesque worms swallowing entire galaxies in one bite, titans made out of cosmic radiation juggling suns in the palm of their hands, and a massive spider walk along a web made out of approximately one million planets. After this complex series of events leaves their line of sight, a massive burst of light engulfs the group, forcing them to shield their eyes to avoid being blinded. They are trapped within the light for a total of ten seconds, though that period seems to last for a much longer time than that. Upon emerging from the light they move their arms and hands away from their faces in an attempt to get a bearing of their surroundings.

Surrounded completely by a grove of palm trees, the heroes are surprised when they take a closer look at them. The trunks alone are as wide as a small house, the height of said trees reach up high into the sky. If one were to try and climb them, they would find that it would take them fifteen minutes of constant climbing to reach the top. If they did reach the top though, they would find a plethora of leaves lying around, acting as a magnificent canopy that blocks any and all sunlight from reaching the ground floor. The trees are placed so close together that it seems as though the heroes are completely trapped inside of this little area. The thick fog that looms in the air does not help at all either, making it harder for them to try and find their way out. As most of the group examines the tree trunks to try and find a crack to slip through, Alpha has one hand laid against the side of his face where his eyepatch is. A small and quiet "Plip!" can be heard coming from his body, after which he takes his hand out in front of his body and points towards the east. "I found a way out of here." He says.

Ending their search, the other heroes gather by Alpha to look at where he points. Sure enough, there is a gap in the trees that is big enough for the whole group to slip through without any bark scrapping against their skin. They then proceed to emerge on the other side of the grove. With curiosity overcoming Driad, he finds himself wanting to ask Alpha a question. "How did you see through the fog anyways?" He asks, placing one of his vines underneath his lips and raising his pupils up towards his forehead. Alpha lets out a small chuckle and promptly taps the side of his head where his eyepatch is, the sound of metal quietly ringing in his head. "There are things in this world that should remain a mystery...But try and put two and two together with that sound you just heard..." With the Commander's cryptic words echoing through his mind, Driad begins to think them over.

The only thing lying between the heroes and the final temple is a single pathway through the forest. The path is divided into seven parts, with each one representing a different temple that they had visited on their journey. Strange things begin to happen though as they start to walk towards the temple. As Driad walks across the first part, which is covered by a multitude of different flowers, he experiences a vision in his mind that shows a single vine wrapping itself around a human's left arm. When Mallow walks over the second part, a small, thin pond of water that ripples as his feet land down upon it, he sees a single human-like foot landing toes first onto a large body of water. The person in question wears a light-blue fish scaled sandal, with arched fins placed on her heel. As Alpha crosses the third part, a single, solid cloud that hovers over a gargantuan pit that leads to the center of the planet, he sees some silver hair swaying to the rhythm of some wind that looms in the room that the man stands in. Gemini crosses the fourth part, a metal plate that has crackling electricity surging beneath it, and sees someone reloading a massive sniper rifle in his hands. Geno crosses the fifth part, a normal, smooth patch of ground, and witnesses a muscular man cracking his knuckles out in front of his chest. Luigi walks over the sixth part, almost slipping on the sheet of ice that covers the ground as he does so. As he walks, he sees a vision of a person gripping their right hand tightly around the handle of an icicle shaped lance. Finally, as Mario walks past the final part of the path with four torches made of bamboo lit on both sides of his body, he sees a vision of a man slowly opening his eyelids, revealing that the eyes are a bright red-orange color underneath. The man turns his head, and sees the heroes slowly approaching the temple's entrance. The flames on the torches are put out instantly, the smoke that remains rising into the skies above before vanishing completely.

After they exit the forest, the group looks around to see what the temple is like. Impressed by it's size, a couple of them theorize that the temple itself could probably pierce the skies above at it's peak. Mario, however, is looking at the top of the temple's entrance, hoping to find the man that he saw in his visions before, only to find that he is no longer there. The plumber quickly assumes that the man probably retreated into a secret passage, but he is not able to think for long, as he hears a strange voice calling to not just him, but the rest of the group as well. "Bienvenido!" Hearing this unfamiliar word, the group turns their focus towards the source of the noise, only to find someone standing in front of the temple doors.

A man that looks to be in his mid-twenties, a human like Alex, stands before them with a welcoming smile on his face. He wears a tattered and burnt robe, whose color is as black as the ashes that remain of the fires on the torches behind the heroes. His feet are covered, but his hands rest on his hips, where one could see a solid amber ring wrapped around his left pinky. The man's hair is spiked, a few curves here and there make it look like a newly lit flame. The color of the hair itself is a crispy dark red, which blends in well his with the man's brown eyebrows. As they look into his eyes, they feel a sense of sincerity within him, and despite his meager looking position he seems to be a good-to-honest man. After speaking to them, the man closes his eyelids and bows before them, lowering his right arm down in front of his chest and placing his left arm onto his back. Despite the man's politeness, the group still has no idea as to what he had said to them earlier, and thus continue to look confused.

Lifting his head up slightly to take a look at their faces, the man sees their confusion and quickly realizes his folly. "Ah, los hablantes de otra lengua ..." He says to himself, an accent in his voice that matches the language he so fluently knows. He lifts his head up and stares into their confused eyes, proceeding to switch to another language in an attempt to get their attention. "Ist das besser?" He says, his accent changing to fit the new words he just now spoke. Still confused, a couple members of the group stare at each other, completely dumbfounded by this man's actions. Everyone is silent for a few seconds, but then the man places his left hand on the back of his and turns it a little to the left, staring down towards the ground and whistling a few tunes to himself. "Wow, harte Masse..." The man decides to try one last language before giving up. Taking a deep breath, the man puffs out his chest and places his right hand on it. "Qu'en est-il?" He says with a particularly romantic accent.

When that fails to get another reaction out of the heroes besides their continuous look of confusion, the man breaths out, releasing all the air that had been stored up in his lungs. Looking disappointed, he takes his hand and rubs the skin on his face downward, letting out a massive sigh of annoyance. "Honestly, English is like the universal language or something...So why bother creating other ones..." He murmurs to himself. Alex leans his head over towards Gemini, and whispers out from the corner of his mouth. "What is with this guy?" He asks. "Probably an illusion created by the temple in order to dissuade us from entering...Either way, he doesn't look right in the head at all." Overhearing the two heroes' talk, the man swiftly turns his head to glare at them, his eyes bulging right out of his sockets and a frenzied scowl on his face. "Hey! It's not nice to backtalk others behind their backs, especially to real people who have FEELINGS!"

With the man's sudden exclamation, the two heroes jerk their heads back in surprise, and quickly bow their heads to apologize for their rash judgments. The man is quick to forgive the two, his face reverting back to a more composed state as he waves his hand out in front of his body. "It's not a problem you two, I understand how you may have come to that conclusion..." As he has his hand raised, Alex catches a brief glimpse of what appears to be a piece of metal that surrounds his arm. He doesn't have much time to think about it though, as the man notices where Alex line of sight is focused at, and without reacting abnormally he promptly lays his arm down next to his hip again. "So, I'm guessing you have collected all seven stones, right?" He asks, trying to change the subject before the young boy questions him.

"Yes...And just who are you?" Mario asks. "Ah yes, forgive me for my improper manners..." He rests his right hand onto his chest. "I am Darwin Serenta...I once tried to gain the Overlord's power for myself, but instead I found my journey to be a failure...That was one thousand years ago..." This was more than enough to blow Alpha's mind. Actually, it was enough to surprise pretty much the entire group. The man barely looked a day over 25, and yet he claims that he took journeyed to this temple one thousand years ago? There was something that the heroes had to ask the man before they believe his story. "Ok, so why have you never aged since that day?" Geno asks. "Ah! A question that I can provide an easy yet enlightening answer to you before you choose to enter the temple..."

"You see, the temple is guarded by seven highly trained warriors. They each bear a title based on the element that they control...And are all equally powerful. I lost to the last one...A charming fire samurai that goes by the name of Zeno Blaze, and was cursed to wander these woods for all eternity...Or until the day the Overlord is revived." He then turns his attention towards Alex, while Gemini feels sorry for Darwin, having to be alone in these woods for an entire millennium sounds like it would be completely unbearable...Yet this man looks as though he has still retained his sanity despite this fact. "So, I'm guessing that young boy is the chosen one, right?" With his mind focused on Darwin's story, he almost did not hear what he just said. "Huh? Oh, I am the one, yes..." Darwin is overcome with an intense feeling of nostalgia, as a massive grin appears on his face. "You remind me of someone I once knew in my more...youthful days." Darwin stays silent for a few seconds, and begins to walk away from the temple, heading towards the forest in the south. He holds his left arm out, waving his hand at the group before he reaches the trees. "I wish you the best of luck. May we see each other again soon..." His body vanishes completely soon after, leaving the heroes to think about his words carefully. "So...We'll have to defeat seven warriors when we go inside, huh?" Asks Gemini. "Sounds like it..." Geno responds. "We have no choice in the matter now. It's either do or die, for we can't leave until we find a way to remove the barrier that surrounds this temple..." Says Alpha. Everyone nods their head in unison, completely determined to accomplish their goal of reviving the Overlord. They begin to advance towards the front door of the temple, which has been opened to allow the group entrance inside of it. As they enter, a massive stone slab slams down from the roof of the door, trapping them inside with no way of escape...

Deep inside the temple, seven warriors have gathered in the shadows. Due to the thick darkness, it is impossible to tell what any of them look like. One of them steps forward to talk to the rest. "The day has come my brethren..." Says one man in a wise and respectful tone. "The Overlord will be reborn here and now, and we will carve out a new path, following him to the ends of the earth...No matter what the cost." "..." One of the warriors is silent. "What is it?" The man asks. "Shall we do nothing about the witch that has infiltrated our most sacred of lands?" Says a woman in a cold tone. "You know why we cannot do that...We gave the Overlord our word, that we would not touch anyone unless they enter our rooms..." The woman returns to being silent. "And what of the seven others that follow the boy?" A man with a high-pitched voice speaks out. "We are to test them...Not kill them, understand?" The wise man states. In the shadows, the outline of the warriors' heads nod in agreement. "Good...They have already entered the temple. You all know which rooms you need to get to..."

Before they leave, they raise their weapons into the air, and chant something in unison. "We obey his will, the weapons he shall choose to yield! When the time is right for us to fight, it shall be by our hand that evil be sealed!" With those words spoken out loud, they lower their weapons and depart from this very room...

34 minutes remain...

Next Time: Driad's Desperate Hour