Sever the Wicked:
"That maneuver has used all but a parcel of my power," Culex echoed overhead of Castle Town. "I have done what I can, Kruna. I must retire and recuperate. Now fulfill your end of the bargain... Everyone in Castle Town must evacuate and give the Kruna here the space needed to quell the threats plaguing the city. It is no longer safe here for civilians and amateur wielders..." In a wild flash of light, Culex's body distorted and disappeared.
The Kruna that had split throughout Castle Town directed the people in their respective sections of the city out with little hesitation. Within just a few minutes, nearly all the citizens had made their way out into Sarasa Field. Donkey Kong went to go and clear out anyone in the western half of Castle Town who may have not got the message and who could still be lingering while the Kruna closed in on Cerberus' and Geno's energy signatures. They had all figured on their own that the large number of other powers gathered near Geno had to be King Boo and the Sweeps, meaning that the cosmic being would be outnumbered, and consequently outmatched, if they did not hurry up and regroup with him in time.
"That puts an end to the hellhound horde," said Geno.
"This is your doing, isn't it?!" King Boo shrieked. "No, I bet it was those meddlesome Kruna that caused all this, wasn't it?"
"Cerberus, attack!" Solovar barked.
The three heads of Cerberus roared in tune with the three large prisms of lightning that appeared high overhead. The prisms rotated around the street and danced over Geno, bolts of electricity zapping down to the ground within moments. The former Kruna Genesis of Light just narrowly escaped the vicious streaks of energy that seemed to fry the very air they shot through.
Before Geno turned around, one of Cerberus' heads was already charging a massive burst of ice. King Boo appeared just offset of the cosmic being and rammed into him to knock him off his feet, at which point Cerberus released his ice blast. As Geno tried to press himself off the ground, the ice smothered him and frosted much of his body. Rendered immobilized, Geno found himself helpless at the hands of his opponents.
"It won't matter," said Naraka. "None of what you and those petulant Kruna have done to get in our way won't matter at all. We will execute every last one of you."
"I doubt that very much," said Geno.
"You're in no position to challenge," said King Boo. "You're frosted, chilled, and iced-down! You better hope there's no fires around – that might get you melted and freed, but I don't think your wood-based body would take too kindly to it... Speaking of which..."
One of Cerberus' other heads charged a sizable fireball in his mouth, but before he fired it off, a larger, more potent burst of flames struck him in the head and broke his flow of energy. The frost covering and immobilizing Geno then detached from his body and shattered around him. From one end of the intersection coming from the south, Athelstan ran into view. From the opposite end of the street, Neva and Marut both dashed down to cover for Geno. Bowser, Warra, Ramona, and Andrew entered the intersection from the eastern side and spread out once they saw Cerberus getting riled up.
"Good; you're all in one spot," King Boo remarked. "Now we don't have to track you down."
The five Sweeps disembarked from Cerberus and hovered in the air along with King Boo. The six entities then backed away, non-verbally cutting Cerberus loose and giving the hellhound some space.
"Cerberus can definitely eradicate all eight of them, can't he?" asked Machula.
"Most certainly," said Naraka. "Especially coming off the large boost in power from his last revival. At this point, those eight down there should be like Goombas to Cerberus."
"The only Goombas here are you six still taking orders from Marissa!" Bowser snapped.
Naraka flinched in midair. "How dare you say something like that! Marissa is a god compared to you all! Marissa is our most cherished and respected friend and sister! We are like family to her! We adhere to her wishes on our own accord! Don't we?" He turned to the other Black Mages, expecting passionate and immediate responses from them. Instead, he got awkward silence. None of the Sweeps felt comfortable adding anything on to what their fellow Black Mage had said.
King Boo smiled. "For what it's worth, I haven't known her for much longer than the several months she kept pestering me to ally with her, but it has been a pretty fun experience. And the power boost from this Mark of the Witch isn't half bad either!"
"Why aren't the rest of you guys saying anything?" asked Naraka.
"Don't worry about it, man," said Maki. "Really."
"But I do wanna worry about it," said Naraka.
"Now's not the time for such a subject!" exclaimed Machula. "Sic Cerberus on those Kruna down there!"
"Now hold on," said Naraka. "I do believe that this is the time; the best time now more than ever! No matter the outcome here tonight, everything's going to be different from here on out! You all hesitated just now, so tell me already; what's going on?"
Tamara grunted in impatience. "Oh, for the love of all things paper – Cerberus! Demolish!"
Cerberus' three heads growled and roared as a large, ghastly purple octagram bordered and outlined with dozens of ancient markings appeared in the sky overhead. A second, somewhat smaller octagram with an entirely different set of markings descended out of the first, though it remained linked to the first one through several strands of energy. The two octagrams, now only separated by a couple dozen feet, began revolving in opposite directions.
Ramona felt her heart sink. "I don't like the look of this..."
"Get ready!" Bowser shouted to the team of elemental wielders. "This doesn't look like anything to hold back against!"
"It isn't," Geno said. "Cerberus is preparing one of his most devastating techniques..."
"Right off the bat like that?!" asked Marut. "We like, just got here!"
Marissa's teeth clenched as she grunted and scowled in place. She had quite a few things in mind to say, but she restrained herself. She felt that if she tried to say anything at that moment, all that was in her mind would flood out at once and make her speech an incoherent, angered mess.
Daisy unfolded her arms, her expression turning dark. "Amusing little game...but it's over now. No more hellhounds."
"What?!" Marissa snapped.
"Warra and Neva figured out everything," said Daisy. "All this time that you were here in Sarasaland, you've been using your Betedaimon venom to mutate whatever citizens you wanted to into hellhounds. Well, the same being that cured me from the venom's effects has just vanished from the sky after curing everyone else afflicted with it. I had Ramona and Andrew go and fetch him over here to work his magic."
"Damn..." Marissa hissed, indignation fueling her mind. I had you in my hands... she thought. I should've destroyed you when I had the chance... By letting you live on as that mutated freak, I not only gave you the chance to develop your power even more, but I opened up the opportunity for something like this to happen...
Daisy looked furious but calm. The smugness she displayed earlier had disappeared, now replaced with the utmost seriousness. Awestruck to see her there the way she was, King Sarasa couldn't keep his eyes off of Daisy for more than two seconds.
"Heh... Sarasa scum," Marissa hissed, grinning as veins became visible in her neck. "Now you've got me mad. And I'm mean when I'm mad." Her Malocchio Eye flashed a glossy shine as she finished her statement.
"All those hellhounds were running about in Sarasaland this whole time?" asked King Sarasa. "Those were all my people?!"
"They were all Sarasaland's people," said Daisy. "Maybe you should've been paying more attention to why so many of them were disappearing around here instead of staying trapped in your narcissistic ways."
"I've had about enough of your mouth, young lady," King Sarasa grumbled.
"I met Elkon, Dad," Daisy said, practically forcing her words out. "You're gonna pay for what you did to him. Elkon was a person, not some tool to fuel your own personal gain."
"Elkon?" King Sarasa asked. "I don't remember any 'Elkon.' I do remember an 'Erebus!' Yes, that's right-"
"His name was Elkon," Daisy sharply replied. "You can call him 'Erebus' all you want, but I know who he was. Erebus was your tool for destruction and domination. But before he became Erebus, Elkon was just another one of us – a person sharing every right in this world that we have."
King Sarasa's frown dropped further. She knows too much, he thought. How does she know of all this?!
"That's right, Father," Daisy remarked, sharper than before. "I know everything that you tried to keep in secret. Master Terran, Elkon, Kokoro – they all told me everything I needed to know-"
"To do what?" asked King Sarasa. "What could you possibly do to me? I am a god compared to you-"
"Excuse me," said Marissa. "But you're just barely scratching demigod territory here on a good day. I'm the real deity here. You're just a wannabe."
"How sad it is," said Daisy, stern in tone as she stared down her father. "The person at the top of the hierarchy in this nation is the one with the worst character."
"You turned it down, Daisy," said King Sarasa. "Your words are empty." He then smiled. "But it appears to me that you want to challenge your old man, so how about it?"
Daisy got in position to fight, gritting her teeth. "If you want to call it a challenge, then yeah, but I feel that a bludgeoning is more appropriate."
"Better watch out, Sarasa girl," murmured Marissa, twirling her broom around as she leaned back and got into position. "Put too much focus on your dad, and you're history." She looked at King Sarasa. "And don't think you're any safer than her, either...mortal."
"I have a right mind to take you out first, witch," said King Sarasa. His eyes then shifted back to the Kruna of Earth. "Nova Form or not...I see that I'm going to have to put you in your place, child. As far as I'm concerned, Nova Form just makes you look more like the rude, petulent troublemaker that you are. I have the science and technology of The East's best doctors and chemists."
"Alright," said Daisy. "If you think that'll make any sort of difference; but I wouldn't bank on it if I were you."
The double octagram continued to intensify in rotation speed and glow as Cerberus shuttled more power through to it. Marut pulled out his ninjato to create a wind attack, but the moment he took aim, a small laser hit him in his arm. Oddly enough, he knew it didn't come from the Sweeps or King Boo because of the lateral nature of the miniscule light beam. He looked around and saw Geno with an open hand and came to the conclusion that he must have fired it at him.
"We can't attack him while he's charging the move," Geno said. Though he spoke to Marut specifically, he motioned around to the other Kruna after finishing his statement. Except for Marut, they all got the memo.
"Why not?" asked the Kruna of Air.
"The technique will run its course on its own without Cerberus' influence or control," said Geno. He then added, "The Birabuto Desert used to be a lot smaller than it is today."
"So?" Marut replied. "What does that got to do with anything?"
"Please take the hint, bro," Bowser muttered.
"C'mon everybody!" King Boo shouted. "Say it with me! Eaten by the grue! Eaten by the grue! Eaten by the grue!"
"This attack is going to bring about a fate far worse than devourment," said Machula.
"Complete obliteration," Maki said under his breath.
"That double octagram overhead acts as a portal for something heinous," Geno said to the Kruna. "A black and purple mass of material unknown to our world that seems to be a cross between an ultra dense metal and pure energy. I can only describe it further as a Dark Meteor. I can drive it back with my light energy for sure and force Cerberus to cancel the technique, though I may need your assistance because of Cerberus' power increase, Ramona. The rest of you will need to cover for us in case the Sweeps get restless and counter."
The Kruna of Light nodded, running over to stand with Geno. "I'll do my best!" The other Kruna ran up and took position nearby, just offset the two light wielders.
"You all are doubting Marissa in some way or another, aren't you?" Naraka asked the other Black Mages. "
"Naraka!" Tamara exclaimed. "Just...just... Can you just... Okay?"
"Just what do they think they're doing down there?" asked King Boo, staring at the Kruna. "They're just making it easier for Cerberus to target them!"
"You all forget," said Naraka. "Marissa brought this creature here so many years ago, but she bound his existence here to me, which means that I am second-in-command of this beast after her." He looked down at the three-headed hellhound. "Cerberus! Cease and stall!"
The two octagrams in the air stopped their rotation and froze as Cerberus paused his charging. The hellhound made no further moves, instead fidgeting around in place as he awaited the command to resume. The other Black Mages all gave Naraka dumbfounded but understanding looks.
"Now's the chance to attack!" Geno exclaimed to the Kruna.
"I thought you said we couldn't attack while Cerberus is preparing the technique!" Marut replied in confusion.
"We can't attack Cerberus because he'll lose control of the technique," said Geno. "But we can attack the octagrams!" He raised an arm and fired off a potent light beam. Ramona put two hands together and did the same.
Both of the light wielders' attacks struck the bottom portion of the layered octagrams, at which point Bowser fired off his Tavado and Marut his cyclonic Aerovado. Their combined efforts shattered the bottom octagram like glass and then pressed on the top octagram. A boost from Andrew and Warra's elemental blasts forced the remaining octagram to give way and snap into several hundred shards. All the countless glowing pieces rained down from above and evaporated after bouncing on the ground.
"Now look what you've done, Naraka!" King Boo shrieked. "You wanna argue, fine! But don't bring Cerberus into this when he should be destroying those Kruna!"
"It was probably for the better," said Naraka. "Marissa wanted to use Bellbridge for her Blood Moon ritual and her special ritual spell. That Dark Meteor would've decimated that skywalk along with most of Castle Town."
"Well then maybe we need to have Cerberus initiate the Dark Meteor again!" Tamara snapped.
Naraka paused for a moment, alarmed. "What are you saying?"
This isn't about personal payback, Daisy thought. Her, King Sarasa, and Marissa had spread out across the street in front of the main entrance to Bellbridge. The demon witch held her broom behind her back, poised to whip it forward the instant someone got near. The king stood tall with his Quake Breakers crossed in front of him, appearing to be mostly in a defensive stance.
They both know that I want to attack... Daisy said in her mind. I don't like the look of this. They must have a defensive maneuver or even a counter ready... Her expression intensified. I'm going to have to try and either put this one away early, or let them play their hands first so that I can better retaliate later on. But I don't know if this is going to be a battle that I want to drag out, especially with Marissa involved...
Out of nowhere, Marissa started giggling through her malevolent smirk. Daisy looked at the witch, whose whole upper body twitched as she giggled like some playful little kid. What are you laughing for? Daisy wondered.
"Cut out that incessant noise!" King Sarasa yelled.
Marissa ignored him and continued giggling, except now holding her free hand in front of her mouth. The witch didn't appear to be looking at either one of the Sarasas. She instead stared at the Bellbridge gate and the Sarasaland Campanile in the distance behind the Central Castle up north.
Daisy's eyes shot wide open. What time is it?! she thought. She glanced up at the sky to try and find the moon. The celestial body, although not too high up in the sky yet, had started to take on a slight orange tinge towards its bottom quadrant. The moon had just slipped past the Sarasaland Campanile. The great tower's grand clock displayed a little more than three hours left in the day, though it appeared that the Blood Moon would occur well before midnight struck.
"It's hard to get the timing of things down sometimes," Marissa then said, ending her marathon giggling. "But even so, it's the event that just gets me so cheerfully giddy."
"I've had enough of this nonsense," King Sarasa grumbled. He put away his Quake Breakers and switched his stance, changing things up as he stretched out his right arm. Dirt, soil, and clay from nearby gravitated around the entire outstretched limb from hand to shoulder to form a massive earthen arm double in size. With his fortified arm ready, he dashed at Marissa.
Attack chance! Daisy yelled in her mind. She dashed at Marissa too, but as she did so, she noticed an open area in her dad that she pulled around and angled herself to charge at. Just as King Sarasa got next to Marissa, Daisy zipped in and swung her leg up through an exposed gap to strike him in his torso and knock him back to where he started.
This isn't about personal payback, Daisy thought, looking at her dad get back up. I have to make sure I beat them both.
Marissa had not even so much as flinched. "Aw, thanks for the save, sweetie! Not like I couldn't have held him off myself, but it's the thought that counts."
"Don't flatter yourself," Daisy spat out, taking a leap backwards.
Marissa smirked. I bet you're trying to take daddy out first so you can keep him safe from me, she thought. I can tell just from the way you're looking at me, Sarasa girl. If you want a showdown, then fine...but I can't guarantee that no one else is gonna get hurt in the process!
Before Daisy could even make another move, a leg bashed into her side and sent her tumbling on the ground into a nearby building. The attack felt surprisingly powerful, but it didn't come from Marissa. The leg that had hit her was attached to King Sarasa, whose arm had reverted back to normal. When the Kruna of Earth looked up, the surprise of her father's force and quickness hit her.
Marissa hushed a snicker and gave a handful of quick claps before pulling her broom back behind her. "I must say, that was marginally impressive, Mr. Sarasa. I now disrespect you slightly less."
Daisy kept quiet as she pressed herself back to her feet, though her intense expression told another story. Her tone was hauntingly low when she did speak. "Wow, Dad. This might take longer than I thought."
"Where do you think you got your physical talents from, Daughter?" King Sarasa replied. "It's good to see you at least developed them and put them to use, but you weren't supposed to use them against me."
"Actually, I was," Daisy said. Forcing energy through her arms, she got in position to ready her Seismic Wave. "And I am. And I will. All your talk about leading and ruling that you try to force through my head and tried to before; it's all coming back around full circle to bite you!"
"And how would you know anything about leading?" asked King Sarasa. "You never even wanted control over Sarasaland when I was willing to hand it over, and you're not fit to lead anything as you are now. You don't have the ability to enforce your dominion, even now, after all this time-"
"A leader does not exercise or force control!" Daisy barked. "A leader acts as guidance, as a nucleus to one whole! My team has faith, respect, and trust in me! I don't have to worry about mutiny or uprisings like you do, because I lead only those who choose to follow me. That's the difference between being a true leader and being a tyrant like you."
The Kruna of Earth brought her hands forward to unleash her great beam of seismic energy. Luckily for her, King Sarasa and Marissa were both relatively within the Seismic Wave's scope, with Marissa further back and behind the king. Despite Daisy's Full Power Nova Form and her potent elemental energy attack, neither of her two opponents moved from their spots.
King Sarasa took out his Quake Breakers and crossed them in front of his body as he stepped to center himself in front of the blast. With great concentration, he blocked the incoming wave of energy and formed a link to attract the earth power into his blades. It took several seconds for Daisy to notice what the king was doing before she finally cut off the energy flow to her Seismic Wave and canceled the attack. By absorbing the energy into his chainsaw tools, King Sarasa had rendered his daughter's attack ineffective. Now he stood with two obnoxiously glowing and tremoring silver Quake Breakers.
In an interesting move, instead of trying to whip around and release the captured energy at Marissa, King Sarasa slashed his tools and sent the mass of collected power back at Daisy. The energy came too fast for Daisy to effectively counter, so she put her arms up and braced for what turned out to be a brutal impact. As she did all that she could to stay on her feet, she wondered if her dad had added some of his own energy to the pool of hers that he had collected before sending it her way.
Daisy grunted and grimaced as she tried to control the shifting and jostling pain that ran through her body. "Damn... That wasn't smart at all. I should have seen that coming, but I didn't expect you to capture and counter in such a way!"
"It's not that complex. Honestly," said King Sarasa. "I guess you would be able to do that if you had some proficiency with an elemental tool – or any weapon for that matter. I guess you would be able to do that if you even had any proficiency on the defensive side of things."
Daisy cocked an eyebrow as she stared down her dad. Wait a minute! she thought. How does he know my fighting style and tendencies if he hasn't seen me fight before? He couldn't've known unless someone told him, and the only person that could have told him was Marissa, but why would Marissa tell him? What would be the motivation? She would gain nothing from doing that, right?
"And how would you know something like that when you've never seen me fight before?" asked Daisy.
"Intuition, I suppose," replied the king. "I am your father, after all."
Daisy frowned, her eyebrows accentuating a focused arch. I don't buy that at all! Somebody I had fought in the past had to have come here to tell him...but who, and for what motive?
Marissa fired off an impromptu blast of golden magic power at King Sarasa, only for the Sarasaland monarch to turn once he noticed the flashing behind him, catch the blast with his Quake Breakers, and then angle around and send it in Daisy's direction with extra speed behind its trajectory. The Kruna of Earth clasped two hands together and swung upwards as the blast got close to send it up into the sky.
"Not letting a redirection like that get me twice!" Daisy shouted. "Especially not back-to-back!"
Good job aiming that blast towards Daisy, King Sarasa, Marissa said in her mind, smiling. Honestly, I thought that was coming back my way if you were to reflect it at all...
King Sarasa said nothing. He took a handful of leaps back to reestablish a triangular spread between the three. Again, Daisy found herself holding off on attacking either King Sarasa or Marissa.
Something's wrong, Daisy thought. My dad should not be as powerful as he is now. Not only that, but I'm picking up on a faint presence different from his that feels too familiar...yet at the same time, his energy signature – aside from power – feels no different than it did just weeks ago – maybe even than it did years ago!
Daisy always had a significant spiritual sensitivity about her, but Geno's training had raised it even higher, for she had not been able to notice the strange disparity and disturbance in her father's energy before in the same manner that she had begun to at that point. As she eyed him down, he appeared sickly to her, even ill in some ways despite not showing any signs of disease or fatigue. Daisy saw through his expression and somehow got the feeling that he wanted to cry, and that he had been wanting to cry for a long time.
Something is definitely amiss here, she thought, still looking at her father. You're hurting, Dad. I bet you wouldn't admit it, or don't want to, or maybe you can't, but you're hurting. Something's really hurting you, but whatever it is that's doing it, it doesn't feel natural at all. It feels like it's getting more and more out of place with each passing moment...
