We suddenly found ourselves in a strange, magical-looking area. And yes, the four of us were still together as a team, thank goodness!
"Are we in Magicant?" Ness asked, still feeling a bit dazzled by the white light we just found ourselves in. He checked his clothes and pinched his cheek. "No, doesn't seem like it."
"What is Magicant anyway?" I asked.
"A realm deep inside of me where I suddenly went on my previous journey, and I'm not even kidding."
"Buddy, of course I believe you, I'm not that close-minded, sceptical, mean type of person that just bashes people for such stories! That's just horrid!" I patted the baseball lover's shoulder. "I'm only just glad you got to have such an amazing adventure with your best friends."
Ness smiled and couldn't help but glomp me.
"Aw, Arn, you really are a sweetheart! As a friend, that is, but still!"
I rubbed the teenager's back, and the four of us went to explore this strange area a little further.
There were many people with peculiar names, including Radiation himself, who appeared to be the leader among everyone here.
But the fun really started once we reached a red path full of all sorts of enemies.
The first one was an old familiar one, the Pure Carbon, which, like the Ninja Chakram back in the 'twilight zone', we defeated in the blink of an eye, it was that easy.
The next enemy was Herman, also known as the 'butt of the week'.
"Friends don't let friends hang out with butts" I said once our battle started.
Herman could blow a lot of critical hits, but my companions and I stayed as determined to the point where we simply bounced those hits back, in which especially I was specialised by now.
After the battle, Herman said one last thing before walking away, head hung low.
"If you didn't want to be my friend, you could have said so."
My companions and I simultaneously blew raspberries at our enemy before heading towards one dead end of the path, where a present and a look-alike of mine were present.
"Hey me!" my look-alike said. "I found my cap that you lost." He tried to give me a Robin Hat, but my inventory was already chock-full. "Oops, didn't see that coming. Well, I didn't really want to part with it anyway."
My companions and I simply chuckled before opening the present, which contained a Bag of Dragonite, that Sherm was really eager to use in one of our next boss battles, so he got it.
Other kinds of enemies we fought on the red path were Starmen Super Duper, our old friends the Dante's Fridges, and only very occasionally Tokages (they were rare, but strong, man!) and Holy Dragons, for which we had to watch out as they were able to use PSI Holy Omega, which could knock any companion out in one go.
The Starmen Super Duper weren't as bad as the Starmen Funk, though, so that was a huge relief for me.
Oh, and during those battles, Sherm and I used a lot of PSI Magnet (if the enemies had PP, at least), and I fed Ness some Brain food lunches to help him gain PP, for which he was very thankful.
At a certain point on the path, I found another present, which contained a pair of Golden Boots, which was a new weapon for me. I immediately put them on and ditched my previous weapon.
Quite some Hermans, a Tokage with a Magic Soap and two Holy Dragons later, we fought a galore of Starmen Super Duper. Like the previous ones we fought, they bragged about a super rare item, for some reason.
"A super rare item, hmm?" Sherm eventually said when we encountered a group of four of those cyborgs. "I hope it's for me, as I always get the rare items."
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that, too" Dog said.
"Now, now" I said, "don't get too jealous. My new pair of weapons is also very rare."
The mutt reluctantly shrugged, and used his Flea Wave Smash on the group of role-player cyborgs.
Once we knocked the entire storm of Starmen out, one of them indeed dropped an item, which turned out to be the Grove Armour for Sherm.
"Hat of Kings" I sang on the melody of Ten Little Indians, "Citric Blade, and now the Grove Armour. Hat of Kings, Citric Blade, and now the Grove Armour. Hat of Kings, Citric Blade, and now the Grove Armour. Sherm's equipment is now complete!" I clapped my hands twice. "Everyone!"
My companions sang along with me while I sang once more, and we applauded for each other afterwards. Too bad that there were no strangers that applauded for us as well, but que sera, sera on red, enemy-ridden paths like the one we were currently on.
A pair of Holy Dragons was fought up next, and Sherm and I used as much PSI Magnet as possible to hopefully not give them a chance to knock any of us out, which eventually worked with one that we owned soon after, even if it took a tad long.
Suddenly, after that battle, I got an idea, seeing as my wristwatch said it was already near 1:30 p.m. and my stomach was also going loose.
"Man!" I said, "those battles made my empty stomach growl as loudly as an angry Chain Chomp! We should have a waffle picnic with those waffles that we still have left in our inventories!"
"Not a bad idea" Sherm said.
"Yeah" Ness added, "I'm hungry, too!"
The four of us rounded up and sat down. Even if we were surrounded by many an enemy, we still had our sudden but fun waffle picnic, where especially many Dark Waffles were consumed. Too bad that we didn't have anything in the way of whipped cream right now, but oh well, better luck next time.
After we were done eating, another Holy Dragon ambushed us, as well as another Herman, a Dante's Fridge, two Pure Carbons, and another flock of Starmen Super Duper. Out of them all, only Herman gave away an item, namely a PSI caramel, which I gave to Ness for some extra PP.
"And now" he said once he chucked the candy into his mouth, "we should probably save up more PP healers, because otherwise, we won't have enough for our battle against the last boss!"
"And right you are" I said with a nod in agreement.
"So…" Dog said, "should we have another picnic, but with the foods that usually only heal HP instead?"
"Not a bad idea. Also, two picnics shortly after each other, that is fun!"
We sat back down in a circle, and put some of the foods that we still had on display. I even happened to have a Dark Waffle left, which I gave to Sherm, who happily ate it.
Ness apparently also had such a waffle left and ate it for himself.
Sherm still had a can of vanilla ice, and wanted to give it to me, so I wanted to grab the can, but he (Sherm, of course) put a stop to that.
"I wanted a little payback for yesterday" he chuckled, "now, you open up the tunnel for the next airplane to go in there!" He took the grip of the spoon into his mouth and took some of the ice cream on it.
"Alright" I chuckled, "you asked for it, and I happily accept." I lied down in a fashion of a deluxe sofa in the Roman era, and opened up 'the tunnel', also known as my mouth, as if my fruity friend was about to feed me grapes, rather than ice cream.
It was both funny and kind at the same time, the fact that Sherm spoon-fed me the vanilla ice as some sort of payback for the fact that I teased him with the idea of spoon-feeding during our campfire dinner last evening.
"And this was also to thank you for the waffle that you just gave me." The teenage tangerine threw the now empty can out in a nearby trashcan, and put the spoon back into his inventory.
"Aw, you're welcome, Sherm." I petted him and rubbed my nose against his forehead, not quite noticing that I tickled his 'nose' spot with my beard.
"Haha, that tickles!"
"Sorry, I often forget about the overall presence of my beard."
"That's okay, man."
After everyone was satisfied, we got back up, and went towards a steel tentacle thingy.
"I think this is yet another teleporter" Dog said, as he picked Sherm up and grabbed Ness's hand with his free paw.
"Nope" Ness said, "we don't want to lose each other now at this point." He grabbed my hand.
I closed my eyes, touched the tentacle, and we were briefly surrounded by a dazzling white light again…
Soon after, we found ourselves near the same tentacle, yet at a different location, namely a sea of sorts, in which we were partly submerged now, yet not wet, like we slightly became back in the water of that sewer-like hallway.
"This is most likely not the Sea of Eden either, I guess" Ness said. "I do see an enemy over there, but it's obviously not one of those Krakens."
"Ooh, Krakens" Dog said, "I love those things. Indeed too bad that they're not here, though."
Just to be sure, we quickly checked each other up if our HP and PP were still alright, and they were, fortunately, so we simply calmly waded further through the weird kind of water, until suddenly, something came towards us, which was that enemy that Ness just pointed out.
To be exact, the enemy told us that it was called a Last Battle, and that just now, it flew in from a beam of light on a plate from western Albania, was a bad idea, was also a butt, also came out of the ground and the sky, and was old. Pfff, that's a lot of information to process in a whole sentence. And it doesn't sound too logical to me, either.
Anyhoo, this battle with the Last Battle was surely a gruelling one, as it attacked with a lot of physical attacks. And it also seemed to hate me with all its heart, as those attacks were especially aimed at me, and left me all covered in bruises that were occasionally swollen.
"Oh my gosh" Ness said, as the enemy still seemingly persisted after his baseball bat assault, "what did this thing have for lunch just now? An entire jar of protein shake formula?"
The statement briefly made me, Dog and Sherm laugh before we landed another hit on the enemy.
The last few attacks were mostly PSI, and after Sherm used PSI Darkstorm as his last blow, the Last Battle laughed and congratulated us before being absorbed by lightning and flying up into a cloud. (A biological one, not a Thunder Storm-like cloud!)
"Whoa, man" I huffed, "that was one hell of a battle!" I healed myself with a Brain food lunch, and handed some PP healers to Ness and Sherm, too.
"Thanks, Arn" they both said as they happily accepted the foods and devoured them like beasts straight away.
Up next, we decided to not fight the subsequent two Last Battles that were also still present, as we were already assaulted intensely enough by the one we just owned.
Instead, we just checked each other up again while wading through the magic water.
Eventually, we came towards a large pedestal-like spot that suddenly stood there, and on which a golden statue stood. It gleamed with a malicious and evil glow, so we decided to approach it with the utmost care.
Dog picked Sherm up, and we all set foot on the steep stairs that were also there.
We waited idly for a short while, and just as I wanted to say "What else are we supposed to do than just aimlessly stand around here?", the statue's eyes suddenly became a glowing red and glared at us…