In Kirby's new adventure against the fell god Galeem—Lord of Light and the Ultimate Enemy, he had made some good beginner's progress in freeing not just a few spirits from their prisons but also Marius Gonzales Mario, the elder twin of the famed Mario Bros. hailing from the Mushroom World. After he had regained a good deal of his own strength, the man was able to stand to his feet looking no worse for wear—never having felt better in fact.

"Man, that was a horrible experience…" Mario said, running his hands through his hair. "I'mma not-a sugarcoat this a-Kirby: that was-a scary as hell, having-a something else-a warp your mind like-a that."

"I'll say…" another voice said, catching the two off-guard though not for long with Mario. "That was far more a harrowing experience than when that overgrown Pteranodon ambushed us a while back, was it not?"

"You can say that again." Now Kirby was confused; he didn't see anyone else around but him and Mario, and he was certain that that wasn't Celeste talking to them. Mario caught on to Kirby's confusion and made to explain it all to him. "Oh yeah, I don't think I've-a actually introduced you to anyone-a here. Kirby, say hello to Cappy, my new-a friend here." At the sound of his name, the hat on Mario's head suddenly grew beady red eyes where the "M" should have been, though they were infinitely friendlier than the burning glare Kirby experienced earlier. In a flash, the hat poofed in white smoke and transformed into a small white ghost like a boo, a curl of blue hair resting at the head of his top-hat shaped body. "I met him in the Cap-a Kingdom on my way to stop ol' Bowser's schemes to marry Princess Peach."

"T'would be my greatest pleasure to make your acquaintance young master Kirby," the little spirit replied with a bow, cordially shaking hands with the star warrior. "I must thank you dearly for your effort to free us from that villain Galeem's clutches. Truly, you are as much of a hero as Master Mario."

"Yup, that's-a what I say. He's got that hero's light-a shining bright in him." Kirby rubbed his head flushed with pride, flattered by the man's words. Just then, two of the three spirits Kirby had rescued had manifested themselves, with Eevee in particular showing excitement over the plumber they had come to know thanks to being chosen by him in many of the previous tournament's matches. "Hey little fella! You okay?"

'Vee, Eevee vee!' The small pokémon flew circles around the man, nuzzling against him with express affection. The Smoky Progg was warier, having been trapped in a copy of the man's body prior to its rescue, yet it slowly approached him all the same.

"Well then, you're that little fella from before aren't ya'?" Mario reached out a hand to pet the creature but it retreated slightly, still traumatized from being trapped in a copy of his body—Mario nodded understandingly.

"Beg pardon," Cappy said, "but who is the other spirit beside you Master Kirby?" The bonneter had been referring the currently unidentified spirit besides Kirby, and Kirby introduced said spirit as a friend who had helped him throughout this adventure. Though Kirby did not know its name, and it did not want to delve into its history, Kirby was fine with that in the end. If Kirby really believed in someone, then that was enough for Cappy to go on as well. "Well-spoken Master Kirby. What matters most is that we should trust them, and since you sincerely trust your spirit friend then so shall I."

"Kirby may seem-a simple but he notices lots'a more than what others-a give him credit for." Perhaps it was his simplicity and forthrightness that let him see things that others didn't despite being nowhere near shrewd or suspicious of others, and it was hard to truly fool Kirby with anything. He didn't have extrasensory powers like many others (unless he was ESP Kirby of course), but he didn't need to for most of the situations he found himself in. "Kirby's a good fella, and if-a anything I'mma super glad he didn't get nicked by that Galeem-a fellow too."

"I'll say. I do not even wish to imagine what could have happened had Master Kirby not survive…" Silence hung in the air for but a brief spell, and the group was quick to snap out of the funk. Something mechanical began to whir and it caught the group's attention.

"MARIO," the device on Mario's back spoke, "I AM DETECTING THE SIGNS OF A HOSTILE LIFEFORM NEARBY. I SPECULATE THAT IT IS OF MECHANICAL ORIGIN, AND IT APPEARS VERY ANCIENT."

"Yeah, I-a know about that one. I think it's a Sheikah robot or-a something along those lines from what Sheik-a told me." Sheik had told Mario that? That didn't make much sense to Kirby given how the Zelda timeline was as he understood it; "Sheik" didn't exist during the any period of time when Hyrule had robots, and while there were no official records of Sheik's existence even during the Era of Time, at least that Link actually knew who Sheik was unlike the other two—including the new one from the Era of the Wild where said robots hailed from even when he had somehow acquired the Sheikah ninja's garb. Regardless, Kirby knew what he and the gang had to face up ahead but he had to make sure absolutely everyone was okay after the previous battle. Mario was touched by the star warrior's concern for his friends and attempted to ease the boy's worries. "Don'tcha worry about me Kirby. I'mma back and-a better than ever." Speaking of which, Kirby was curious as to Mario's new attire; he distinctly remembered Mario not wearing any of the additional embellishments on his outfit, including the cape that Mario only had out when deflecting a projectile weapon. Mario had finally noticed this as well, giving himself a once-over about his new look.

"Huh, this is actually kind of snazzy if you ask me," the man said, observing his new look. He had protective gear over his shoulders, forearms, upper torso, and legs. Even his hat had additional plating to make it a little more than just an ordinary cap(py), and of course there was the golden cape slung around to his back with a royal blue on its underside and super feathers decorating the collar area. F.L.U.D.D. looked a little different too, with their nozzle being attached to a retractable hose and they had a slightly smaller yet sturdier water tank that didn't push out from his back so much. "Makes me look like a superhero eh?" All things considered he may as well had been a modern day superhero to Kirby which was thankfully lacking the underwear on the outside of his suit. But they had more than enough time later to ponder the reasoning behind Mario's new clothes, so Kirby had urged his teammates that time was of the essence. "You're right kiddo, now let's-a go!"

Kirby's group had only managed to travel a short distance further before they came nearly face-to-face with their next roadblock, another spirit trapped in their new body. It looked to be a giant light pink and purple R.O.B. covered in what looked like moss and grass, and its back was turned to them. In truth, it already knew that they were there, and to be frank it did not even want to acknowledge them lest it be trapped into another battle against its will. However, that was cowardly even for itself, to pretend that they weren't there so that it wouldn't be put through more torment, and besides it seemed as though they had prepared to fight it anyhow even if it protested. Nay, it was a noble guardian stalker through and through, and even though it was being made to guard against the heroes' progression it must fulfill its many-millennium-long duty, obliterate its own discontent and fears as if they were the chosen hero it once stood against, and do what it did best. Perhaps this was the end for it anyhow, and after accepting its grim fate its new body whirred to life and burned with a malignant light as it had done long ago. Once it made sure that all parts were functional it slowly turned around to face the newcomers who had come to challenge it atop the Great Plateau's tower, and as the bright blue lights on its chassis darkened into a royal blue it finally opened its eyes. They were without light for but a brief moment, and when the pink hero stepped up to challenge it its eyes came alive once more with an evil red light—the time for battle has finally come with an ominous piano cue somewhere off in the distance.

*BONG*

The first thing the guardian did was lock Kirby into its sights and fired a deadly laser dead at him; the laser wasn't as powerful as its original nor could it be charged up to full power as quickly, but it would have to do in the meantime. Kirby dodged the beam with noticeable difficulty, as the beam had nearly grazed his foot. That wasn't the end of his troubles as the giant R.O.B. took to charging its gyromite on its stand to supplant its neutral game.

Kirby ran toward the giant R.O.B. knowing that it couldn't hit him with the gyromite being so close to it, but he failed to take into account that it could easily change weapons, and it did just that without waiting for its laser to fully charge and instead releasing a short-ranged burst of energy that that was still strong and could still burn Kirby. Catching the star warrior off guard with its point-blank laser eyes, it belted out a quick rotary attack with its arms and launched the lad far away onto his back. From just a matter of seconds Kirby was already in critical condition, and seeing this the guardian R.O.B. finished up its gyromite charging. Once it was at full power the robot quickly launched the blade at the star warrior, though it didn't count on Kirby being stable enough to swallow its projectile, recovering some of his lost health in the process. The robot stared dumbly at Kirby, wondering how the miniscule creature had just eaten its rather large gyromite—let alone to any benefit of itself—but it brushed the matter off and simply charged another one it somehow had in reserve. Kirby could try inhaling the gyromites again, but that would ultimately get him nowhere against this R.O.B., so he tried to close the distance again while staying out of the range of the R.O.B.'s physical reach. When the robot flung out another rotary arm attack, Kirby finally closed the distance and went for a burning tackle; to his surprise, the robot had not budged an inch, and Kirby paid for his efforts with being grabbed by the robot and promptly jackhammered into the ground. He didn't have much time to escape before the guardian unleashed its S3 laser on him, blasting him straight out of the ground right in time for a giant gyromite to bean him dead-on.

"Kirby!" Mario just couldn't believe how much of a bad start Kirby was off to against the robot, and speaking of which the machine had finally readied its full-charge robo-beam, slowly hovering towards the downed boy to finish him off once and for all. "Not on my watch! Eevee, lend me a paw here!" Mario dashed off as fast as he could with the pokémon trailing behind him, and just before the guardian R.O.B. could unleash its point-black beam, Mario had finally managed to step in-between his friend and the enemy robot—flinging out his cape in front of him to reflect the deadly robo-beam. His aim was timed just right, redirecting the attack right back into the R.O.B.'s optical sensors, forcing a recoil out of it as it struggled to regain its bearings. Knowing that the machine would not easily flinch or be launched from his standard attacks, Mario opted for the grab-n'-toss tactic, jumping up to grab at one of the R.O.B.'s arms and slam it straight down to the ground, far more forceful than what he had remembered. "Hee hee, take-a that!"

Furious at how a short, portly plumber managed to bring it to the ground when the champion of Hyrule himself had to thoroughly struggle against its overbearing might the first few times around, the guardian spewed white-hot flames from its thrusters as it attempted to regain its footing, hoping to catch its foe off-guard. Mario was nimble enough to easily sidestep the attack, and he switched to dodging and deflecting further attacks until the robot was vulnerable to being grabbed again. By then the R.O.B. had finished charging up enough decent energy to fire off another robo-beam, though that too was simply deflected by Mario's magic cape. The R.O.B. had enough sense to counteract this ploy with its rotary attack, using its arms to continually repel projectiles launched against it—even one of its own. This had caught Mario by surprise for a moment, forgetting that R.O.B.s were capable of that, and he wasn't fast enough to play tennis with the robot using his cape, so he simply sidestepped the beam, leaving him open for when the R.O.B. came rushing at him. Snatched up into its arms he was, squeezed tight in its grip he was, and finally piledriven against the ground and launched into the air he was. He was too dazed from the surprise attack that he had no way of dodging the searing flames erupting towards him from the R.O.B.'s burner thrusters. Already he was on the ropes from just a short amount of attacks laid on him, and he absentmindedly wondered what had become of Kirby, the lad who had saved him just minutes prior. If he wasn't in so much pain he'd have yelled at the star warrior to run while he still could—live and fight for another day—as he held this spirit at bay.

'Share Stock…!'

Hm? Mario wondered where that voice had come from, but forgot about it as he found himself helplessly falling toward the R.O.B.'s revved up burner thrusters. He braced for impact, but the next thing that happened he never would have expected; an arm wrapped itself around him, and wondering who it was he turned to see that it was another Mario holding on to him tightly, and the other man had used his fully charged F.L.U.D.D. to push the pair away from the burner thrusters' attack path. Once the pair was back on the ground, the original Mario was gently sat down on the ground to recover some of his strength, and the other man charged off against the guardian. This Mario, the original one could see, was dressed in a pattern of black and white in place of red and blue respectively, just like the false Mario that the Smoky Progg was forced to operate, though this Mario's eyes were not the murderous glare of red light but rather the brilliant gleam of gold, and his clothing reflected the change that Mario himself had underwent upon his true awakening in this world.

"Hoo-waah!"

Now the guardian was thoroughly confused; where exactly had this second Mario come from? It didn't matter all to much in the end since this Mario was now laying quick blows into its hull, quickly dodging to another side whenever attacked. This pattern of weaving and bobbing out of its attack range was getting incredibly old, so it turned its focus on the recovering fighters who had yet to recover their full strength, and it targeted the one it knew was the biggest obstacle in claiming victory: Kirby. Its robo-beam was fully charged, and after forcing the second Mario off of it with a rotary attack it focused its aim on the star warrior in a bid to eradicate the threat once and for all. Suddenly, it found itself harshly yanked from behind and landed face down on the ground right before its laser was fired, literally blowing up in its face and severely damaging its optical receptors further, and that was before it found itself being flung in a circle and tossed off the ledge of the tower. Acutely aware of how much fuel it had used in its attacks from prior along with the second Mario's F.L.U.D.D. having messed with its burner thrusters, it was quick to grab on to the ledge and roll out of the way of the Mario who was waiting for it. Unfortunately for it, in its partial blindness it found itself right before Kirby who had regained some of his strength, and Kirby locked it in a grab and pummeled away as its chassis, soon pulling it down to the ground and stamping it with furious feet. Frantically, the guardian rose to its footing but found it increasingly harder to see where it was; its lens had been damaged from having not one but two of its own fully charged robo-beams directly hit them, and as such it could only rely on sound and without its robo-beams. When it heard heavier footsteps draw near, it dropped its arms to the ground and furiously spun them around in the hopes to catch them, but when it heard something lighter jump up towards it, it quickly raised its arms back to maximum height and spun them around once again to defend itself. It was left vulnerable to one of the Mario's grabbing at the cord connecting its arms to its base, and in a blind panic it tried to crush the fighter to keep them from disconnecting its cord. It was too late, as the cord had been ripped out of its socket, and in a matter of seconds it was almost completely helpless at the mercy of the fighters once it felt that it could no longer move its arms. At the very least its burner thrusters were still operable, and out of a desperate gambit it hovered a foot or two off the ground and began burning through as much of its fuel as possible to sear anyone who dared get close enough.

The guardian was absentmindedly wondering about the last time it had felt so helpless; some time ago back in its own world it had faced off against the champion of Hyrule, though his appearance was alike its own on top of mounting a strange horse of similar creation—out of nowhere it was blindsided by the hero as he cleaved its legs off with an ancient bladesaw, knocking it down on its side afterward and leaving it completely at his mercy. It was finished off quickly, but the few seconds it had spent in that state made it really feel useless, never mind not wanting to have fought the hero in the first place alongside its fellow turned brethren. For all its strength, it may have held off the hero at an earlier time, but now that he had regained its full strength there was truly nothing that could stop him, and even though it was unable to escape the thrall of the calamity's power, a small part of it at least desired to fulfill its purpose of being a guardian. It couldn't even have that, and after so many blood moon nights it found itself the target of the hero's assault once again. Each time, it ended with it completely decimated, and it had wondered whether the hero truly hated them all for the carnage they had wrought upon those they were sworn to protect. Soon its mind was dominated by hatred toward the hero for causing it and its brethren models so much pain, and in time it no longer thought about its former duties; if it was to forever be an instrument of the calamity's power then so be it, and with true malice flowing through its ancient hull it had stalked after the hero in vengeance.

A few more battles afterward and subsequent blood moons returning it to life, it had established a game of sorts with the hero, that of a cat-and-mouse-like chase wherein it pursed him with the discarded ancient weapons used against it. In time it had learned to modify itself, becoming more dangerous with each weapon the hero had lost, and though it had lost a few times it had a small sense of satisfaction in how many steeds it had taken from the hero. Before the hero could face off against the calamity after he had torn through even the dreaded Golden Wolf Warriors of the Lynelkin, it alone stood between him and his final destination—armed with ancient armaments upgraded by the power of Ganon, and the two of them clashed blade to blade. Though it appeared to possess an early advantage, the hero had by then acquired that damnable Master Sword, and the spirit within the goddess-made sword had fought with him as one against its overwhelming might. Soon it lay broken at his feet, not even able to fire off a deadly laser at him, and it seethed with unbelievable rage. To its curiosity, the hero had neither hate nor pity for it, only a solemn look of compassion for its plight. Then is when it felt the spirits of its brethren at its side, telling it to let go of the past and the pain it had suffered through—allow the hero to win and finally save the kingdom as they were meant to do. Finally it had regained its old sense of self, remorse fighting against the hate the calamity had stoked within it, and with a final thrust it felt its life claimed from the jaws of Ganon for good.

Now, as it squared off against the fighters of this new world, a familiar sense of longing for freedom started to take root, finding a life under this fell god of light was far worse a fate than complete death, and little by little it was less trying to keep them at bay moreso than it was simply burning through its last source of energy so that when the time came it would not run from its fate. Then it finally happened—its fuel was completely emptied and it slowly fell to the ground, utterly spent and awaiting its last judgment.

"Hey, it-a stopped," Mario spoke, confused and curious behind its change of behavior, watching as the second Mario had slowly walked toward the fallen guardian. The two of them shared a deep look in the other's eyes, even if the guardian could not actually see anymore with the loss of its optic sensors. After a long silence the R.O.B. had closed its eyes, finally at peace with itself knowing that it would be freed. The second Mario gave a compassionate nod much like the hero had done for it once upon a time, and in his hands a great fire had blazed to life before being set loose upon the weakened robot. The blast pierced its chassis and set alight an explosion from within, and the guardian keeled over before the malicious light that had taken hold leaked out. The guardian gave one last silent praise to the skies where it assumed its creators rested as the energy had finally overtaken it in a great blast:

Free at last!

Free at last!

Thank the Goddesses almighty, I am free at last!

*BOOM!*

…

'So, any more brilliant plans in that little head o' yours?' Wolf O'Donnel jeered.

You shall see soon enough, as now that they have bested the Guardian Stalker they must make a hard decision…

'And…that being…?' Dark Pit Icarus goaded.

The crossroad before them is where they must chose who they are to save out of the three fighters awaiting them, assuming that they manage to survive…

'You're forcing them to choose one between three paths while abandoning the other two…' Corrin surmised. 'Regardless, I assure you that they'll save them all no matter what they choose.'

The view must be great from that glass house of yours, Corrin Plantagenet

'I—beg pardon?!'

'01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110100 00101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101011 01100101 01110100 01110100 01101100 01100101 00101110' R.O.B. bleeped and booped at Galeem's expense. '01000001 01101100 01110011 01101111 00101100 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01110111 01101001 01110100 01100011 01101000 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00111111'

You ought know how to do that yourself, Family Computer Robot Model Number HVC-012…

'01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100001 01100100 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01101110 01100001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110101 01101100 01110100 00101110'

Then perhaps it is in my best interest to silence you instead…

'01010101 01110000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100111 01110010 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01101100 01100010 00101110'

'Language!' Rosalina chided. 'There are children present.'

'Yeah, knock off that crap—whatever you just said,' H.D. Quinn, better known simply as "Incineroar", said in agreement, not realizing his own mistake in the process and causing a rousing bit of laughter from various others. 'What, did I say somethin' funny?!'

Enough.

Just like that everyone was silent once more, wondering what else their captor had in store for them.

Whatever choice they make, it will not matter in the end. Should they get past any of the fighters I have stationed, there are many more of my soldiers lying in wait to finish them once and for all.

'You keep saying that,' Sir Meta Knight challenged, 'I don't think you realize the predicament you're really in.'

Galeem honestly could care less of how little they knew about how futile it was to hope that Kirby and Mario would win, but by the powers that be could they get incredibly annoying about it. Galeem had considered banishing them all from its presence but that was unwise; it needed them in reserve as to not allow Kirby any more chances of victory, because even if Kirby was to somehow make it all the way to Galeem personally, the less energy spent until then then better. There was, after all, no such thing as a truly invincible being, and Galeem itself was far from an exception. Galeem remained unwavering in its confidence; it may not have been invincible but that hardly mattered if your enemy wound up dead before they could exploit that fact, and as the battle had just proven to them all, there was only so much that Kirby and Mario could take… Still, though, things would either quickly grow ungodly dull with the fighters' silence or irritable with their constant bickering back and forth between Galeem's downfall or victory. Thus, the light god began considering ways to keep the fighters' minds off Kirby's and Mario's adventure without giving them a chance to undermine its plans. After it finally recreated the world they would all wind up serving under it anyhow, and to ensure that they would remain loyal to it then it had to somehow appeal to them despite everything.

…So… Who amongst you wishes to test their minds against me in a game of…"chess"?