Nearly done with this story!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 14: Magolor's Betrayal

Stage 7-4: Four-Headed Dragon

[BGM: Omen of Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

The Warp Star dropped them all at the base of the volcano. "Well, this is it." Meta Knight said. "Hopefully you're all ready to take on a dragon."

"Pfft, you kidding?" Arusu smirked pridefully. "Buddy, we've slayed tons of dragons back in our universe. We can pretty much handle any dragon now." while he was saying that, his comrades were nodding in agreement and also mirroring his expression.

Meta Knight chuckled. "I know."

"I've already defeated a grounded dragon before, so defeating a flying one for the first time could be interesting!" Kirby chirped. "And we'll be doing this together with actual professional dragon slayers!"

The Loyal Bodyguards couldn't help but chuckle in slight embarrassment. "We wouldn't actually consider ourselves 'professionals'…" Eight replied sheepishly. "We're more like 'experienced', in a fair way."

"…Yeah, fair enough."

"Okay, let's not dawdle any longer." Dedede spoke up. "Time to slay that dragon!"

Everyone nodded and took off, going up the volcano's slope and passing over a bridge to reach Landia's nest, which was a large arena-like landscape completely surrounded by a giant lake of lava.

[BGM End]

And not too long after, said four-headed dragon, Landia, immediately showed up by descending from the sky above and proceeded to soar over the group and stop before them, then it would give another aggressive roar at them to signify the start of a battle.

"Here it is!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed.

[BGM: Four-Headed Guardian Angel: Landia – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

"Get ready!" Meta Knight said as everyone drew their weapons, ready to battle.

Landia started spitting fireballs at the group, as they quickly scattered around to dodge them. "Alright, dragon slayers! What are dragons weak to?" Dedede asked the Loyal Bodyguards.

"From our experience, dragons are highly vulnerable to magic, especially elemental types." Solo replied. "However…the type of elemental weakness varies depending on the dragon type, and we're not sure yet about what type that one is weak to."

"Oh… Well that's a bummer, because none of us besides you guys have any kind of magic to use."

"Hey, if this helps… we do have a skill that dragons are weak to, no matter the type." Eight spoke up. "That one being Dragon Slash."

"Then maybe while we try to figure out its elemental weakness, one of us can use it to weaken Landia whenever we have the chance, thus leaving it vulnerable for everyone else to attack!" Eleven formulated. "How does that sound?"

"Oh, that sounds like a good plan!"

"We'll try to land some attacks on it, too!" Kirby chimed in. "As Magolor said to us, let's use our combined powers to fell this beast!"

"All right!" everyone else said.

Once the fireball assault stopped, Landia proceeded to dive at the group as they quickly jumped back before Solo flew up to it and Flame Slashed it, as it responded by spinning at him but he dove out of the way and landed back on the ground. "Nope, not weak to fire…" Solo remarked.

Landia turned to the group and flapped its wings at them, creating a torrent of wind that pushed everyone back as well as creating sharp wind gusts, forcing everyone to dodge them as Meta Knight flew up and fired sword beams along with Eleven casting Kaswoosh while Arusu casted Kazap, but both magic attacks didn't do much to it as it retaliated by ramming into the trio to knock them down. "Argh! It's not weak to lightning either!" Arusu exclaimed.

"Not even wind…!" Eleven said with a wince.

Next, Landia's two side heads proceeded to breathe fire at the group as they jumped back, but then the fire began to spread along the ground towards them. "Alright, let's even the odds here." Eight said, and then he turned to Kirby. "Kirby!"

"Right!" Kirby nodded as they first put out the fire on the ground before breathing ice and water at Landia, both colliding with its fire breath on each side, but the countering breaths would soon overpower the fire breath and engulf the dragon… only for it to shake it off.

"Oh… I guess it's not weak to ice." Eight sweatdropped.

"Dragon Slash!" before Landia could do anything else, Eleven had managed to sneak behind it and strike it with the aforementioned skill, making Landia roar in pain and fall to the ground weakened. "Now! Attack!" Eleven hollered, and with that, everyone immediately proceeded to wail on the dragon until it shook it off, roaring in anger as its eyes turned red… before suddenly splitting up into four dragons.

"What the?!" Bandana Waddle Dee jolted. "It just split into four!" as he said that, each Landia re-positioned itself and began charging fire from their mouths.

"Watch out!" Meta Knight warned right as the Landias began raining fireballs in hopes of hitting the group, but they thankfully dove out of the bombardment in time.

"Well, that's just great! Now we have four dragons to deal with!" Dedede exclaimed in exasperation.

"And we still haven't discovered which element Landia is weak to!" Arusu added.

"Hold on…" Solo spoke up. "The elements we've already tried were fire, lightning, wind and ice, right?"

"That's right." Eight nodded. "What other element can we try, then?"

"Maybe we can try light?"

"Hm… that could work." Eleven said. "But first… we need to stop their bombardment."

"Leave it to us!" Kirby said as he rushed to one of the Landias and attacked it from below with Geyzer, as Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee would follow suit by attacking each of the other Landias from below with their weapons. This got the Landias' attention as they stopped raining fireballs and instead flew into a grid formation, charging electricity between them before proceeding to lunge at the group, but Eleven got in front and quickly charged up an attack.

"Brightsplitter!" he called out and struck all four Landias with a single slash from his light blade, causing them to cry out in agony and get stunned.

"Hey! It worked!" Arusu exclaimed. "So the light element is its weakness, huh?"

Eleven blinked in realization and thought, "…Of course. The Red Dragons from my world are weak to light, and Landia is literally a red dragon! So that means…" he turned to his comrades. "You guys can also attack it with Bang spells too! These should work the same way!"

"Ah, got it!" Solo nodded.

"Oi, let's stop wasting time and beat those dragons up already!" Dedede ushered, and everyone proceeded to attack the dragons repeatedly until they recovered and flew up, and next proceeded to dive downwards across the arena in order to ram into the group, but they would run away from them while Eight took out his boomerang and used Starburst Throw, as arrows of light rained down and struck the Landias as Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee followed up with a Mach Tornado and Waddle Copter respectively, then Kirby hit them with a Rainbow Rain and then Solo casted Kaboom on them for good measure.

The Landias recovered and roared at the group to knock them off their feet, then they would fly to the background and go into a square formation to do a little volley with a large fireball, as it increased in size with each volley. After that, they launched the now massive fireball towards the group just as they were recovering, creating a large explosion on the ground that continuously damaged the group before knocking them away and taking out Kirby and the Loyal Bodyguards' Copy Abilities as well.

"Ooowch… That was harsh…" Kirby winced.

"Agh… That's it…" Dedede muttered, twitching in anger as he suddenly brought out his Masked Dedede Hammer. "I'm gonna knock those darn dragons out of the sky!" he growled and as the Landias were coming back to them, he fired out missiles from his hammer to hit the dragons and make them crash to the ground, and then the Loyal Bodyguards took this opportunity to finally finish them off with four Dragon Slashes on each Landia, as they let out a cry of defeat and immediately fell unconscious.

[BGM: Let Me Explain Everything – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

Shortly after the Landias fell, a golden crown of sorts that was attached to one of them floated out of its head and bounced along the ground, landing right in from of the group. Nevertheless, the group didn't even pay attention to it since they were distracted in celebrating Landia's defeat together after being healed to full. But just then, their celebration would be cut short when they looked up at the sky and saw, much to their surprise, Magolor floating down to them while clapping.

"Bravo, everybody. You've truly earned your reputation as heroes." he congratulated them with a rather mysterious stillness. "Your help defeating Landia was invaluable."

The group was confused at that, and then they watched as Magolor picked up the crown. "Ah… At long last, it's mine!"

"What…?!" the group thought with eyes perked up, as the crown glowed and floated right over Magolor's head.

"The source of limitless power… The Master Crown!"

Then, the moment the Master Crown was on Magolor, bright energy began to surround him… and before the group knew it, Magolor had transformed into a large frightening ethereal being with long horns, red eyes, red cloak with a white collar, and white detached hands. "Obtaining this crown has been my ultimate goal all along!" Magolor boasted with a menacing voice as he loomed over them.

Each of the members of the group had different reactions to that: Kirby simply just stood there with a neutral expression while tilting his head, Meta Knight was taken aback and stood in a defensive pose, Dedede was sporting a hilarious jawdrop complete with wide bulging eyes, Bandana Waddle Dee was flailing his stubby arms in a panic before stumbling to the ground on his back, and the Loyal Bodyguards flinched with shocked looks before slowly furrowing their eyebrows, clearly hinting that they were at the same time shocked and angry for this sudden betrayal.

"What's with all the weird looks? Fine. Let me explain everything." Magolor said. "I fought Landia by myself and lost. So I fled to Planet Popstar. That's when the thought struck me… I could have you all defeat Landia for me! A stroke of genius, I know. You even helped me repair my Starcutter. I really did appreciate that, by the way."

As Magolor spoke on, he uses his new obtainable powers to open up a rift to Kirby's home universe above him. "Anyway… MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The time has come for this universe… No! The time has come for the ENTIRE MULTIVERSE to bow down to me." he floats up next to the rift. "And for being such a big help to me in all of this, this universe gets to go first! Prepare to bow, Gamble Galaxy! Welcome your new overlord!" he proclaimed as he goes into the rift, leaving the group behind.

The group was still standing there, having to process everything Magolor said to them. And despite having that neutral expression, deep down, Kirby felt hurt inside. All the times he and his friends spent with Magolor… chatting friendly with each other… with the Halcandran even saying he considers them his friends… These all turned out to be a bunch of lies, and Magolor was just using them this entire time. Does that mean Magolor actually never cared for Kirby and friends at all… and that was only just a pretend act? This was exactly the same situation with Marx during Kirby's Milky Way Wishes adventure… Is Magolor really just a second Marx? A part of Kirby was telling him to just accept it as the truth, and that Magolor really was a manipulative bastard from the very beginning… but the other part of him was telling him otherwise as making him refuse to believe that, and either unfortunately or fortunately for him, this latter part was proving itself to be stronger, thus filling Kirby with a strong sense of denial within him.

But with Kirby being occupied with his inner conflicted feelings, he obviously wasn't paying attention to his surroundings as one of the Landias, who had just woken up, was slowly walking up to him from behind… and then it grabbed him by the top of his body with its mouth and flung him into the air. This instantly snapped Kirby back to reality and by the time he did, he was now sitting on Landia's back while the rest of the group watched that in awe. The now apparently friendly Landia then took a quick glance back at Kirby and gave him a quick reassuring nod before looking back at the rift above, as if it wants to help him out in pursuing Magolor through it. Kirby immediately understood it, and smiled in return.

Before long, the other Landias have awakened as well, and so the rest of the group proceeded to mount on each of them in pairs: Arusu and Dedede on one, Solo and Meta Knight on the other, Eight and Bandana Waddle Dee on the third one, and Eleven sat on the one with Kirby. Filled with determination, the group commanded their dragons to take off to the rift, and so they did, going into it one by one before it closed up.

Now they had a new goal in their hands… Stopping Magolor from taking over the whole multiverse!

[BGM: Fly! Kirby of the Stars – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

The group was now flying around the sparse, empty voided realm that is Another Dimension, which is characterized by having large empty spaces filled with strange swirling patterns and energy. To put it simply, it was a very eerie and trippy place in general. Not too long after, the group was greeted by several Rāpas, one of the types of Doomers, that tried to attack them by ramming into them, but they were instantly defeated by the Landias spitting out star-shaped projectiles from their mouths.

"Oh! Thanks, guys!" Kirby thanked the Landias, as they let out cute little roars in gratitude.

"Huh… This almost reminds me of what I and my comrades have been through in Pit's world…" Eleven thought, then he turned to his comrades while pulling out his Yggdrasil Club. "Guys, let's lend them a hand too!"

"On it!" they replied in unison and took out their Kid Icarus weapons afterwards as they continued their journey, and then they were met with another type of Doomer: Rīpas. They attempted to shoot the group down by firing out shots from their mouths, only for Eleven to bat these back at them before Solo shot them to destroy them.

"This definitely was a good idea." Solo smirked in approval.

"It sure was! And we appreciate it!" Bandana Waddle Dee chirped as they kept going where the Landias busted through the walls of Another Dimension, which are depicted as glowing yellow blocky formations that often shift and could easily crush when doing so, where they were being bombarded by shots this time from Rupas, but they quickly dodged and then the Landias shot them while Arusu and Eight shot some more Rīpas and Rāpas respectively along the way, as everyone was also making sure to mind the crushing walls.

It was at this moment, that the last type of Doomer appeared before them right after they left the walls section: Rēpās. They immediately proceeded to fire large shots at the group, to which they avoided the attacks before shooting them back repeatedly until they were destroyed, then the group would take off to another portion of the area.

In said portion, they were met with large pulsing spiky star-shaped crystals floating freely around. These were proven themselves to be indestructible, as the group tried to destroy them but to no avail, and so they had to swerve around them instead while also having to shoot at some more Rēpās on the way. Next up was a series of walls that function as gates where they had to shoot a blue switch to open them up and pass through, with some of the gates being guarded by Rēpās. From there, more crushing walls had to be navigated through, becoming more and more dangerous for the group as progress is made, basically forcing them to take shelter into some nooks to avoid being crushed. Then, after dodging some truly massive versions of those spiky crystals, they finally pressed on to the next portion.

[BGM End]

As they kept going into this new portion, Magolor suddenly teleported before them. "Tch. I never imagined that you would all follow me in here…" he said.

"Magolor…" Kirby whispered, a small tear rolling down his cheek. "Please… tell me we're at least still friends just like you said before!" as he said this, the others looked at him in surprise. "Remember of all the times we've been spending together back in your ship!"

Magolor only laughed dismissively. "Don't be ridiculous! It should be clear to you that it was all just an act! Once I'm done taking over your universes and all the others out there, you and everyone from the other universes shall bow to me as my slaves!"

"No…! Magolor, I know that there's still your old self in you somewhere! Please, snap out of it! You don't have to do this!"

"Kirby, what the heck are you saying?!" Dedede questioned. "Quit being in denial already!"

"I am NOT in denial!" Kirby shot back. "I just know that Magolor would never do this! The Master Crown must be controlling him or something!" his voice was at the point of breaking. "He… he even said that nothing good comes out of fighting!"

"Kirby…" Meta Knight whispered.

"Hmph, whatever." Magolor scoffed. "I don't have time to deal with the likes of you, anyways. I have a whole multiverse to take over, and you'll just be on my way like annoying obstacles." he then made an expression akin to an evil grin. "But if you want to have fun, though… Then why don't you all play with my Starcutter instead?" he thrusted his hands as a large rift opened in front of him, and out of it came out the Lor Starcutter… only that it now bore a darker color scheme.

"Yipes!" Bandana Waddle Dee yelped as Magolor aimed his hands at the Starcutter, assuming control of it like a puppet.

Kirby let out a sniffle. "I… I really don't want to do this…" he whimpered.

Eleven looked down at him pitifully. "I know you don't want to, Kirby. But if Magolor is refusing to listen to you… then we have no other choice."

"R-right…" Kirby nodded, and then they all got ready to fight the ship.

[BGM: Fly! Kirby of the Stars – Super Kirby Clash]

The Starcutter fired star-shaped bullets from its emblem at the group, but they quickly avoided the shots as the Landias immediately bombarded the ship with their shots, where it retaliated by launching its wings out like boomerangs at them but they were quick enough to fly around and avoid them.

"Have some of this!" Arusu said, slashing at the Starcutter with his blade weapon… but that didn't leave a single scratch on it. "Are you serious?!"

"Hahahaha! You can't do anything!" Magolor laughed as he next made the ship's oars suddenly detach out before launching them towards the group like homing missiles, but Eleven batted them all back directly into the Starcutter where they exploded and caused it to take damage… and then new oars would grow out from both sides of the ship to replace the old ones.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Magolor complained. "Alright…" he said as he suddenly made the Starcutter's mast shoot out a massive whirlwind to blow the Landias back, but the group was shown to be clinging onto their backs for dear life, much to Magolor's dismay. "Wh… You were all supposed to get knocked off!"

"You seriously had the nerve to go for a cheap attack, huh?" Meta Knight said.

"Grr…" Magolor growled. "You've all forced my hand… Time to kick this baby into overdrive!" with that, a dark aura surrounded the Starcutter before a series of spheres of energy appeared behind it and fired themselves at the group, but the Landias dodged them and fired back at the ship while the Loyal Bodyguards looked at each other with a nod as they unleashed their weapons' Special Attacks at the Starcutter all at once… only to have them all blocked by a shield of energy around it.

"What?!" Eight exclaimed.

"Hah! I wasn't going to fall for that!" Magolor cockily said and then made the ship charge at the group abruptly, as the Landias didn't have time to avoid it and were knocked away, but luckily the group still held on as Bandana Waddle Dee would look at the Starcutter from the back and notice its engine, as an idea then sparked into his mind.

"Hey, guys! How about we try destroying its engine instead?" he suggested. "That might bring it down quickly!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Kirby nodded. "In that case, Jewelie's Bodyguards and the Landias will keep shooting at the ship as a distraction, while we will fly into it and destroy the generator powering up the engine. Got it?"

"Understood!" the rest replied while the Landias nodded in understanding, and so they got ready to execute their plan.

"Let's see you all try to take down my ship now!" Magolor boasted as the Starcutter, now without the shield, moved in from behind the group and began firing a lot of bullets at them, as the Landias quickly turned around and dove under the ship that was the safe spot, and so the Kirby cast took the advantage to dismount their respective dragons and float towards an opening from below that led to the Starcutter's interior. Once the bullet assault stopped, the Landias flew back up to start shooting the Starcutter along with the Loyal Bodyguards… and sure enough, Magolor didn't notice that the Kirby cast was gone, since he was busy commanding the ship to fire out more spheres of energy.

Meanwhile, the Kirby cast made it inside the ship and found the engine's power generator that kept it afloat, which was powered up by the Energy Spheres they collected along their entire journey. All of them nodded as Meta Knight slashed at the generator repeatedly, followed up by Bandana Waddle Dee impaling it with his spear while Kirby and Dedede ran over and hammered it for insult to injury. Immediately after, the generator started to smoke as the whole interior was flashing red with a blaring alarm, so the Kirby cast quickly made a run to the same entrance they went in as a robot voice spoke:

"Warning! The Starcutter's engine is highly unstable! Any more damage will make it stall and fall!"

That voice was also heard by everyone else outside… Magolor included. "WHAT?! Why did this happen?!" he questioned.

"Because we did it while you weren't paying attention, sucker!" Dedede teased, as the Kirby cast showed up while riding on a Warp Star.

"You… YOU…!" cross-popping veins appeared on Magolor's forehead. "THAT'S IT! I'M BLASTING YOU ALL OUT OF THE SKY!" he yelled… but once again, he was unaware of the Landias sneaking behind the Starcutter where its damaged engine was, and then the Loyal Bodyguards aimed at it and fired a charged shot at it at once… which caused it to explode.

[BGM End]

"DANGER! Engine destroyed! Starcutter unable to remain afloat!" the same robotic voice spoke as the ship slowly went down, all while Magolor watched in disbelief.

"…NO! Unbelievable!" he complained, growing in frustration quickly. "Arrgh… You're not going to stop me!" he flies away.

"He's getting away!" Meta Knight growled.

The Landias came flying over to the Kirby cast. "I'm sure we can catch up to him again." Solo stated reassuringly, and thus the Kirby cast mounted on their respective Landias again.

"Let's go!" Kirby exclaimed and everyone took off.

[BGM: Final Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

By flying through a warped tunnel-like area, the group was able to catch up to Magolor again as the Kirby cast sans Kirby and the Loyal Bodyguards held their weapons aloft to their side, ready to take on the crowned villain. Annoyed, Magolor teleported far away from the group and flew off further, but the group still kept charging after him and so he had no choice but to attack them with energy orbs, only for Meta Knight and the Loyal Bodyguards to deflect some of them with their swords.

Magolor then decides to intensify his attack, charging up and releasing dozens of energy orbs at the group as they tried their best to dodge them, but one by one, they would get shot down: starting with Dedede and Arusu due to their Landia making a wrong move and flying right into an energy orb, next was Bandana Waddle Dee and Eight who were distracted with looking at the previous fallen riders, then Meta Knight and Solo for not having enough time to deflect the next energy orb after having already deflected two others, and lastly Kirby and Eleven after having witnessed all of their falling allies.

With everyone having been knocked out of the sky, the camera pans down and reveals that they were plummeting down to a strange blue bubbling landscape below…

To be continued…

Originally, I was going to include the first phase of Magolor's battle here as well, but the Starcutter's battle tired me out so badly after I finished writing it, and so I went, "Eh, I'll just leave the entire Magolor battle for the final chapter."

But speaking of the devil... I hope you look forward to the final chapter with the final battle! Until next time!