15B - Vs. Crystal King
It's been 20 minutes since Mario went through a panic attack due to all the stress building up from the Duplighosts' trickeries. He slowly picked himself back up and put his cap and gloves back on.
"Are you sure you're fine, Mario?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah. I'm 90% sure," Mario replied. "But after this, I'm never going inside a palace like this one again."
"I hope we don't." With hesitation, Mario led Luigi and Goombario to the room with the glass wall's middle cut open. In addition, the two doors on the top and bottom half were locked.
Since Goombario found the key earlier, he unlocked the bottom half's door, which also unlocked the top half's door.
"Luigi and Goombario, you go through the right door, and I'll take the left door," Mario instructed Luigi and Goombario.
Inside the final room before the exit, there were three Albino Dino statues on the top half and three real Albino Dinos on the bottom half. And there were three gold squares in a line on both halves.
After scanning the statues and Albino Dinos for a couple seconds, Mario became confused immediately. "What is this puzzle?!"
"I'll try to ask this white dinosaur," Luigi responded before saying to the leftmost Albino Dino, "Hey. Can you help us, please?"
"You can't go through here unless you solve the puzzle. Once you solve the puzzle, we'll let you through," the Albino Dino answered.
"Give me a second, Mario," Luigi said. He took a moment to look at the statues and the Albino Dinos even more than what Mario did. "Try pushing the left statue forward a bit."
Mario pushed the leftmost statue a couple feet, causing the leftmost Albino Dino to move too. Both were just short of the left gold square; however, the statue was above its square while the Albino Dino was below its square. Again, everyone stopped to mull it over.
Suddenly, Goombario came up with an idea. "Mario! I think I got it!"
"What is it?" Mario asked.
"You see the statue you pushed? It's above that gold square on your end. The white dinosaur next to Luigi is below its square."
"Can I just push the statue?"
"Try it."
Mario attempted to push the statue toward the square, but it didn't budge. Before he could complain about it not working, Mario thought of something else.
"Wait. Luigi, touch the right side of that dinosaur."
Luigi poked the right side of the Albino Dino's head; in response, it turned to face Luigi. "Whoa! That's creepy! Look at its face!"
What Luigi didn't notice was that the statue turned left toward the glass wall. Mario immediately pushed the statue onto the gold square and ran to the middle statue.
"Do it again, Luigi!" Mario called out, finally figuring out how to move the statues properly. Luigi touched the middle Albino Dino's back from behind, and it turned to face Luigi. Mario pushed the respective statue right until it was above the top half's middle gold square. Finally, Luigi touched the Albino Dino's left side before Mario pushed the statue onto the gold square.
To finish it off, Luigi touched the rightmost Albino Dino's back from behind, prompting Mario to push the respective statue right until it was above the top half's right gold square. Luigi then touched the Albino's right side before Mario pushed the statue onto the right gold square. Right as Mario let go of the statue, a red-carpeted staircase rose from the ground and stopped at a white door on the top half. Luigi and Goombario rejoined Mario before they went up the stairs and exited the Crystal Palace.
Mario breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they made it out unscathed. "Finally! No more clones again!"
"We still have to fight the Crystal King," Luigi reminded Mario.
"I know." Mario took a few seconds to think which partner he wanted to help him and Luigi fight the Crystal King. He decided to swap Goombario with Spike.
"You ready for more action, Spike?" Mario asked.
"I'm ready. Who am I battling now?" Spike questioned.
"You'll see." Mario led Luigi and Spike toward a tall snowy platform, which had nothing on it.
"Who comes to my palace?!" an unknown elderly voice called out. Seconds later, a Shaman with a blue crown with red stones, a blue mustache, and an indigo cloak with white cufflinks appeared in front of the group.
"Mario and Luigi... You finally arrived!" the Crystal King announced.
"You must be the Shaman that joined Bowser's army!" Mario pointed out.
"Right, you are! Those Shiver region wizards are worthless to me! Hehehe!" the Crystal King chuckled. "I know you believe you can save the Star Spirit, but I'm afraid I won't let you."
"Oh, you will in a couple minutes," Luigi boasted.
"No, I shall not!" the Crystal King argued. "After I defeat you two and your partner, I shall present King Bowser with three iced gifts to put in his freezer!" Without further ado, the battle commenced.
The Crystal King's first move was to summon three angry-looking ice cubes, called Crystal Bits, that floated alongside him.
"What are you gonna do with those ice cubes? Hit us with them?" Mario taunted. "I'd rather fill my drink with them!"
"Well, since you have no cup, how about you open your mouth for me?" the Crystal King offered. He sucked the Crystal Bits into his cloak and spat them hard at Mario; Mario punched and destroyed the Crystal Bits with ease. Next, Luigi leapt high enough to maneuver himself above the Crystal King's head before ground pounding him. As a result, the Crystal King fell over on his back as if he slipped on an icy surface.
"Why didn't you get squashed like those Goombas?" Luigi asked.
"I'm no Goomba!" the Crystal King boomed. "That's why! You think you can stomp me like that?"
Before Spike could have his turn to attack, the Crystal King leaned back a bit before shooting a bolt of ice at Mario, who managed to dodge it at the last second.
"Well, I got to commend your quick reflexes, Mario," the Crystal King said. "But I know you'll tire yourself out eventually so I can freeze you for real." Again, the Crystal King summoned three more Crystal Bits.
Spike took the short opportunity to throw a barrage of Spiny Eggs at the Crystal King and his Crystal Bits, destroying the Crystal Bits before the Crystal King could suck them up again. His crown also cracked a small bit.
"What the-" the Crystal King started before gazing at his crown. "How dare you disrespect my royalty?!"
"It's not disrespect, Your Majesty," Spike responded. "It's payback for taking the last Star Spirit, and you deserve it a lot."
"Well, at least you do call me by the proper name, but watch my next move!" The Crystal King floated above the ground and duplicated himself into two other clones before they faded a bit and formed a straight line down the middle.
"Not again..." Mario muttered while facepalming himself; he didn't freak out this time, though.
"It's got to be the center one," Luigi stated before jumping over the middle Crystal King and ground pounding him. But Luigi went through the duplicate, and saw he stayed intact.
"Hahaha! You cannot stop us now!" the three Crystal Kings exclaimed.
Spike took a couple seconds to think it through before executing his next move. He threw a Spiny Egg at the three Crystal Kings before it hit the back one, making the two duplicates disappear. The real Crystal King nearly fell off the cliff and grabbed the edge with both hands.
"NO! I GIVE UP!" the Crystal King cried with fear. "DON'T LET ME FALL!" Mario and Luigi approached the Crystal King while Spike stayed behind.
"How about I let you in on something?" Mario offered.
"If you pull me back up, I'll do anything for you!" the Crystal King shouted.
"Not just yet. You see, me and my brother got six of the seven Star Spirits who, alongside the seventh one, are able to grant everyone's wishes with the power of the Star Rod," Mario explained. "But who was the first to be granted those wishes? You tell me."
"Umm... King Bowser?"
"No. It was your Shaman friends a couple generations ago," Luigi answered. "The late Madam Merlar said so."
"Madam M- She was my master before she died! She had me construct the Crystal Palace with the others!"
"Oh, really? That's intriguing," Mario remarked.
"Her Excellency put me in charge of the whole construction, and I didn't believe in the Stars since I was born!" the Crystal King admitted. "I was pressured to help build the palace by the wizards because they saw my reluctancy!"
Suddenly, the Crystal King's fingers began to slip off, frightening him even more. "WHEN I HEARD KING BOWSER STOLE THE STAR ROD TO MAKE EVIL WISHES, I THOUGHT IT WAS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE FOR ME! I WAS HIS RIGHT-HAND MAN DURING THE PALACE INVASION! I FELT PLEASED WHILE DESTROYING THE BUSTS!"
"NOW I FEEL GUILTY FOR WHAT I DID!" the Crystal King went on. "PLEASE PULL ME BACK UP! I'LL HELP REBUILD IT ALL!"
"Hmm... I understand you now," Mario said. "You want to rebuild something big?"
"I'M ON MY LAST LEG!" the Crystal King yelled. "I'LL TURN TO THE SHAMANS AGAIN! I PROMISE!"
"Actually, I have a better idea," Mario stated.
"What...?" The Crystal King expected an answer from Mario, who had a small smirk on his face.
"I suggest you..." Suddenly, Mario jumped up a couple feet before slamming his feet on the cliff edge, breaking it and sending the Crystal King to his doom.
"NNNOOOOOOO!"
"Rebuild yourself in Hades' sanctum!" Mario finished loudly while seeing the Crystal King disappear into the dark abyss below. He giggled silently as he and Luigi rejoined Spike.
"How was it?" Spike asked.
"It was a stress-reliever for me," Mario replied. "I felt like me and Luigi were the villains for a moment."
"Yeah. That was one of the coolest things I've done in my life," Luigi agreed. A couple seconds later, a glowing white orb rose from the snow behind Mario and Luigi's backs.
"Here it comes!" Spike declared, prompting Mario and Luigi to turn to the orb. The orb then blew up and imploded to reveal Kalmar trapped in a playing card. Mario and Luigi gasped with disbelief.
"The last Star Spirit..." Mario murmured.
"We did it..." Luigi replied softly. The group approached the card before Luigi grabbed it. "Oh my God..."
Then, a bright white light shined from above Mario and friends, who flew up with the card before fading away. Their mission was nearly complete. Only two more objectives remained on their to-do-list: to free Jim from his dungeon cell and to save Peach from Bowser yet again.
