The Temple of the Sun
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The first thing the gang saw on the other side of the door was a long hallway that ended over at a short staircase leading down somewhere. The second thing they saw was a golden Bombshell Bill that was flying straight at them.
"AAAAAUGH!" Mario cried as the Bombshell Bill hit him right in the chest, exploding on impact and sending him crashing into the door behind them.
"Oh, great… not these again…"
"Uh oh… there's Bombshell Bill Blasters down at the end of the hallway," Dulia said nervously as Mario groaned and got to his feet. "I guess we have to beat them to keep going, huh?"
"That's how it always is," Mario sighed. Left with no other choice, the group carefully made their way down the hallway, maneuvering out of the path of the Bombshell Bills that would periodically come flying at them in pairs.
"All right, let's get rid of these stupid things!" Hanner cheered as they finally reached the pair of Blasters that had been firing at them from the end of the hallway. She eagerly whacked the nearer one with her hammer, only to deflate as she found she hadn't made a scratch. "Heyyyy, what gives?"
"These things have super high defense, Hanner. We'll have to lower it first if we want to get rid of them."
"Ah, okay. Well, that's where our lovely and talented Dulia comes in!" said Hanner, pushing the shocked-looking Duplighost forward.
"W-what? Oh… right, you got it." Everyone braced themselves as she floated into the air and unleashed her Howl on the Blasters. Mario wasn't exactly sure how it worked against inanimate objects, but work it did, and from there it only took a few good whacks to take them out of commission.
"All right, what's next?" Mario asked once they'd cleared the path.
"Next we get to do the same thing two more times," Goomblaine announced, looking less than thrilled. Everyone looked and realized the short staircase led down to an identical hallway with an additional set of Blasters firing in the opposite direction, and behind them was yet another staircase that led down to yet another hallway being bombarded by yet another duo of Blasters.
Everyone suddenly felt ready to collapse at the sight of it.
"Coming in here was Mario's idea," Hanner said accusingly, giving him a glare.
––
Though it took a while, they finally made their way down all three descending hallways and walked through the door waiting for them at the end. Though as Mario had expected, the next room wasn't much more welcoming. It was basically a very narrow hallway with a low ceiling… except it kept changing elevation.
"This certainly isn't the most efficient way to get through this place," Maizee sighed as they all stared at the sheer wall right in front of them. At the top, high above their heads, the hallway continued on.
"Shoot, this place is mighty cramped, ain't it?" Snatchel said distastefully. "What d'you reckon the Guardians even need with a place like this?"
"That's one of the many things in this world you just shouldn't think about. Unless you want to hurt your brain," Mario advised. Luckily, his Wall Jump was perfect for this room, and so he was able to leap back and forth between the two close-set walls and scale his way up to the higher-up hallway. Not so luckily, the only way to bring his partners with was to carry them up one at a time.
"Sorry, Mario. Are you okay?" Stubba asked worriedly as Mario lay panting on the landing with the rest of them.
"Don't worry, Stubba, it's not your guys' fault," he sighed, sitting up slowly. "Still, this would be a lot easier if I could just fit all you guys in my pocket somehow…"
"Well, maybe you could. We are paper, aren't we?" Dulia asked reasonably.
Ferdinand looked displeased. "Dude. The Bumpty Boarders are not meant to be folded up and put inside small places, man."
"Yeah, where's the fun in that? We should all be out here so we can hang out together!" Hanner laughed. "That must be what you did with all your old partners, right Mario?"
"…You know, I think we should keep going."
As it turned out, the hallway kept rising and falling as they walked through. The group had to jump off the edge of the upper hallway as another wall led down to the lower portion, which in turn just led to another wall leading back up. This went on for quite a while, and by the time they were done with their walking, jumping and wall-scaling, the entire party's tempers were running short.
"This place is drivin' me nuts, and we're not even halfway through," Goomblaine griped as they entered the next room, voicing what everyone was thinking. "Okay, we got another maze in here, Mario. But from the looks of it, there's somethin' off about those walls."
"There are walls in here?" said Mario, looking confused. At first glance, they were simply standing in a replica of the previous hallway with the golden windows… but suddenly he realized Goomblaine was right. He could barely make out a bunch of walls creating a maze of sorts… barely, because they were largely transparent and obviously not solid. The only sign they existed was the faint rainbow of colors that comprised them, shimmering like bubble soap.
The only trouble was, there didn't seem to be a way to walk through the maze. There was nothing but dead ends in front of them.
"Hmm… well it's not much of a maze if we can just walk through the walls, now is it?" Mario remarked after surveying the scene for a while. He fearlessly stepped forward toward the nearest wall, intent on passing right through it… only to cry out in shock as an invisible force jolted through him and sent him flying backwards, skidding to the ground.
"Ow…" he groaned, lifting his head up. "Okay, check that…"
"Dude… these things are totally trippy, man," Ferdinand said in delight, experimentally poking the wall closest to him. "But how do we get through this place then?"
"Well, there's nothin' but dead ends now, so we gotta move the walls somehow." Goomblaine was looking at his phone. "All it says here is the walls aren't solid, so… we can't move 'em the traditional way. The only way to do it is with somethin' else not solid."
"Hmm… something like noise, maybe?" Maizee said with a thoughtful smile. She stepped forward and closed her eyes in concentration, singing an enchanting song. The ethereal wall in front of her started to writhe and shimmer at the noise, and before long she'd completely "disabled" it, causing it to vanish.
"Ha! All right! This'll be easier than I thought," Mario laughed as Maizee spun around and gave them all a wink. So they set off through the strange maze, with Maizee in the lead as she eliminated any dead ends that got in their way.
Beyond the door at the end was simply another short staircase continuing to lead lower into the Temple… but beyond that was something else entirely.
"…What a weird-looking room," Mario muttered as they all reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around at their location.
"Hey, it kinda looks like a clock in here, doesn't it Mario?" asked Stubba, turning around and around to get a good look at the room. He seemed to be right; it was shaped like a hexagon, and more importantly, there was a clock hand set into the floor, currently pointing north.
There were also three doors that each led off in a different direction, but only one was currently reachable; there was a short pathway extending from the floor that led up to it. The group was cut off from the other two doors by a large gap circling the floor.
"Hmm… I wonder what this room is for," Maizee said thoughtfully. "This temple certainly is a strange place, isn't it? So many things we still don't know."
Mario couldn't help but notice the decorations on the walls of this strange room. The walls were all warm colors, orange and yellow and gold, and were decorated by stylistic paintings of suns… but no moons, like Mario would have suspected in a place like this. That must carry some kind of meaning…
"Might as well have a look around," he finally decided. After walking through the only available door, they found it led only to a short hallway that contained a chest holding an Ultra Shroom, which was useful but didn't really help in the long run. There was a strange-looking pedestal in the middle of the hallway as well, but nobody could figure out what to do with it, so they headed back.
"We gotta get to those other doors somehow," said Goomblaine after they'd analyzed the room. "But the only way to do that would be moving that pathway… like, rotating it so it's facing another door. There's gotta be some way to do that."
Mario gave a smirk. "I might have an idea."
He walked up to the large clock hand set in the floor, rubbed his hands together, and gave it a shove. The effect was immediate; as Mario pushed the hand, it moved in a clockwise direction… along with the rest of the floor.
"WAAAAUGH!" the partners all cried as the floor spun underneath them, knocking them off their feet and sending them all collapsing to the ground.
"Huh?" Mario looked up and saw what he'd done. "Oops… sorry, guys."
Stubba suddenly sat up with a big smile, looking completely unfazed (unlike the others, who were still sprawled on the ground and groaning). "It's okay Mario! Look, you did it!" he cheered, racing over to the door that was clockwise from the one they'd just been though. The pathway had rotated along with the rest of the floor, and now it led up to the second door instead.
"All right! No puzzle is too much for us!" Hanner said happily as they all jumped up and followed after Stubba.
Goomblaine gave her a look. "Whaddaya mean 'us'? You didn't do nothin'."
"Just give me time…"
Beyond the second door was just another short hallway populated by a few Phantom and Shadow Embers, but the chest in this one contained another golden Temple Key.
"I have a feeling I know where this thing goes," said Mario as they returned to the clock room, noticing that the final door had a golden padlock on it. The plumber walked up to the clock hand and gave it another shove (the partners braced themselves this time), rotating the floor again and causing the pathway to shift position. Now it led right up to the locked door.
"I wonder why this door is locked… maybe there's something really important through here," Dulia said thoughtfully as Mario put the key in the lock, causing it to pop open and drop off the door.
"Well, this entire temple is beyond important," said Mario. "Unless King Shroude is through here… and I don't think he is…"
Curiously, he pushed the door open, and he and his partners slowly crowded through, gazing around warily at the room they had just entered. It was huge and wide open, and like the room they'd just left, the walls were colored brightly and had suns painted on them.
That, and there was also a giant phoenix standing in the middle of the room.
"YAAAAAAUGH!" shrieked Hanner, Stubba and Dulia.
"Holy stompin' Thwomps, what is that?" cried Snatchel.
Mario gasped and scrambled backwards, staring up in shock at the enormous bird who was gazing at them with narrowed eyes. She – Mario was certain she was female – was covered in brilliant red-and-gold plumage, creating the illusion that the edges of her massive wings were wreathed in flames. She let out an angry caw as she looked down at them, unfurling her wings to reveal that they shone like sunlight.
"Who goes there?" she demanded in a regal, authoritative voice. "Who are you that you would intrude upon the Temple of the Sun without permission?"
Mario was vaguely aware that his partners were all cowering behind him again. "Uh… would you believe, the Guardians of Day?" he asked feebly, his voice breaking.
"It's no use, Mario," Maizee said quietly. "No doubt King Shroude is controlling her as well. She can't be reasoned with."
"Controlling me?" the phoenix snarled, sounding highly offended. "That dark-skinned intruder may have powers too great for me to contend with, but no one controls me! I am Garudawn, one of the two great sentinels of this temple! And you are no Guardians that I have ever seen!"
Ferdinand frowned. "Hey, no need to get testy, dudette. Anyway, if you're so awesome, how come you didn't wail on that King Shroude dude as soon as he got in here?"
"She just said he was too strong for her, Ferdinand," Mario muttered.
Dulia stepped forward. "Garudawn, if you're not working for King Shroude, then you have to help us! We're trying to defeat him, but we need all the power we can get!"
Garudawn just gave a derisive snort. "A likely story! I don't believe for a moment that the likes of you are the true Guardians of Day! If you are who you say you are, you must prove yourselves!"
"Uh oh… I see where this is going," Hanner groaned.
Garudawn flapped her magnificent golden wings, rising into the air. "I shall test you. If you are able to defeat me in battle, then I shall recognize you as the true Guardians!"
And without a warning, she let out a shriek and dived out of the air. Everyone screamed and ran for cover.
"Great, just great, just great," Goomblaine swore frantically as he grabbed his phone and Tattled on their opponent. "Okay, it's Garudawn, the first one of the great sentinels. She's got some kinda wacked-out sun powers she can attack us with, and obviously we can't hurt her with ground attacks as long as she's up there. And don't let her swoop down on you either, 'cause trust me, it'll hurt!"
"Prepare to face my might!" Garudawn shouted, circling around and diving at the group again. This time they were ready. Hanner threw a well-timed hammer right at her head as she soared by, causing her to break off her attack mid-flight as she struggled to stay airborne. Mario took the opportunity to throw in a powerful Spin Jump right on her head, which was enough to send her crashing to the ground.
"Grr… you've made a mistake challenging me!" she threatened, giving Mario a painful broadside smack with one of her huge wings and sending him tumbling away. Before she had the chance to take to the air again, Stubba raced up and pounded on her with his Club attack, only for her to round on him impatiently and smack him away as well.
"Guys, be careful! Don't get too close or she'll just knock you back!" Dulia cried out, racing over to help Mario to his feet. Meanwhile Garudawn had risen back into the air and was circling over their heads, preparing another aerial attack.
"Hey! Come down from there!" Hanner shouted, throwing a volley of hammers before realizing her target was far too high up to reach… and was also aiming right for her.
"Uh oh… AAAAAAUGH!" she cried, trying to run away, but she wasn't nearly fast enough. Garudawn swooped out of the air and knocked into Hanner without even slowing down, flipping the Hammer Sis onto her back.
"Oh great… not this again," she moaned, frantically trying to flip over. "Uh, a little help please?"
Garudawn looked over her shoulder and cawed in triumph. Then she slowed down and made a U-turn, preparing to come swooping down a second time, only to be thrown off course as Dulia came flying at her with a Head Missile. She slammed into the phoenix, her impact so powerful that Garudawn was crashing into the wall with a shriek.
Dulia landed gracefully on the ground and stared at what she'd done. "Wow… I don't know my own strength," she said timidly.
Garudawn had slumped to the ground in a daze, but it didn't last long. "Hmph… very well. Allow me to demonstrate my true power!" she shouted, spreading her wings. Dozens of tiny shards of light suddenly materialized in front of her, briefly floating in midair before streaking off toward Mario's team. They only had time to gawk before they were all struck by several rounds of brilliant shards, each blow a sting of pain.
"Ack!" Mario cried as the force of the impact sent him and the others sliding backwards several feet. He shielded himself with his arms, grimacing against the multitude of blows but managing to stay on his feet.
"All right, time to get serious," he muttered. Before Garudawn could generate another attack, he raced forward and wound up his Ultra Hammer, smacking her right in the legs. She gasped as her knees gave out and she struggled to remain standing, and Goomblaine took the opportunity to knock her to the ground with a Headbonk.
"Enough of this!" she snarled, knocking the Goomba away with a snap of her wing before rising into the air again, out of their range. The partners weren't about to let her get away with that, however.
"You ready for this, little dude?" Ferdinand called down to Stubba as he rapidly flapped his arms, flying after the phoenix.
"You bet!" cheered Stubba, who was hanging onto the Bumpty's foot.
Garudawn was busy pelting the other hapless heroes with another round of sun shards when she noticed the two of them out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face them, only for her eyes to bulge in shock. "What in the – "
"YEEEEEAAAAUUGHHH!" Stubba and Ferdinand both let out deafening battle cries as they flew directly at her. She was so dumbfounded she didn't even think to move out of the way before they crashed into her, Ferdinand delivering a Beak Jab while Stubba swung his club at her with his free hand. Garudawn let out a cry as all three of them came crashing to the ground.
Mario had watched this whole thing in shock. "Guys! What did you just do?" he cried, racing up to them as his partners got to their feet.
"We combined our attacks, dude!" said Ferdinand. "I call them… Dual Techs!"
Mario stared at him while Goomblaine rolled his eyes. "Eh. It'll never catch on."
The group snapped back to attention as Garudawn let out another furious squawk, rising back into the air. She was looking badly beaten and disheveled by now, but still her eyes blazed with determination.
"I shall not be undone by the likes of you!" she declared, spreading her wings wide and unleashing her ultimate attack. "Solar Flare!"
All at once, an enormous beam of light came blasting down from the ceiling, crashing to the floor with the force of an explosion. It was so powerful that Mario and the others were all sent screaming and flying in different directions, skidding and tumbling across the green carpet.
"Urgh…" Mario groaned from where he lay on the ground, rubbing his eyes. That attack had been so bright that he was momentarily blinded… that wasn't good.
"And now to finish you!" came Garudawn's voice as she looked down at the heroes lying helplessly before her. She spread her wings again and prepared to deliver the final blow.
Gritting his teeth in pain, Snatchel managed to climb to his feet. "All right, time to see how strong this gal really is," he grumbled. He grabbed his lasso and hurled it at the huge phoenix, roping her right around the ankle. She'd been so distracted charging her attack that she didn't notice until it was too late, and she shrieked in surprise as Snatchel used Roundup and yanked right to the ground with a loud crash.
She lifted her head up with a look of fury. "You fools! You dare insult me this way?" she screeched, rapidly flapping her wings and thrashing violently about, causing the whole room to shake.
"…Uh, Mario? A little help over here?" Snatchel called nervously, straining to keep her pinned down.
"Right! Right! Got it!" Mario shouted as he and the others all charged forward and bum rushed the huge bird, ganging up and pummeling her as hard as they could. Most of the partners were knocked away by a sweep of her wings, but Mario managed to stay in the fray long enough to deliver one last Power Smash.
That was all it took. Reeling from his deciding blow, Garudawn let out one last defiant cry before she collapsed to the ground, weary and defeated.
Realizing they had won, Mario stepped back and took a deep breath. "Heh heh… well, that was fun."
"Speak for yourself," Goomblaine grumbled.
"Urgh… im… impossible…" Garudawn wheezed, slowly struggling to her feet. "And yet… no mere mortals could possibly defeat me… it must be so, then. You truly are the Guardians."
"Oh, come on! That's what we said! If you'd just listened to us we could have avoided all this!" Hanner shouted impatiently.
"Yeah, and he's the Master of Day! You better say you're sorry to him!" Stubba added as he pointed at Goomblaine, who looked very humiliated.
Mario covered his face. "Guys, you're not helping…"
Garudawn straightened up, trying to regain her composure. "So be it, then. If you are the Guardians, then I entrust you with the task of defeating King Shroude and restoring this temple to its rightful state. I shall lend you my power."
She spread her wings wide, and a bright glow suddenly appeared in front of her before floating down to Mario. Surprised, the plumber automatically reached out his hands as the glowing object fell into them, and as the glow died away, he saw he was holding onto a bright golden sphere.
"That is the Sun Orb. You will know what to do with it when the time is right," she said. "Now go. If you wish to defeat Shroude, you will have to contend with my brother as well."
Then she lifted up her shining wings, and in a blinding flash of sunlight, she vanished.
Everyone stood silently in the now-deserted room.
"…Uh… did she just say she's got a brother?" asked Snatchel.
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A/N: I was going to have both miniboss fights in this part, but that might be a bit much to digest.
I'm also gonna try really hard to put up these last few parts more quickly, since I want to finish the story before I go back to school.
