"Mac," the strained calm in Mario's voice was the first thing to break the tension. "give me the Bit."
Mac wasn't paying a scrap of attention. His eyes were glued to the box. The suddenly dusty air dried out his slack-jawed mouth. He didn't want to speak in front of this thing. He didn't want to breathe in front of this thing. Who knows what could set it-
"MAC!"
"Eeyuagh!" Mac jumped back instantly, raising his hands up instinctively.
"Give me the Bit."
Mac took a step back. He was already huffing and puffing. He glanced over to Luigi, who didn't look to be fairing much better, but he did eke out a nod in Mac's direction.
"T-Take it."
Mario brushed his thumb against the Bit. The pristine, flashy white had changed to a striking shade of red. He slid his hand into his overall pocket, gripping the handle of his switchblade extra tight. Retrieving it and springing the blade free, he quietly wished it was longer. Much longer.
"I'm gonna open that box up, and that door needs to be closed when I do."
"M-M-Maybe there's a key around here somewhere." Luigi's eyes went to examine the room. There didn't seem to be one hanging on the wall, but it just had to be in one of the dressers outside the room.
"Sure as hell don't see a lock." Keeping the blade out in front of him, Mario took a step forward. The toe of his boot was now pressed against the wall. Mario wagged the knife just a few inches in front of the box. And yet, no reaction. Hmmm... "Come on guys, get out of here. We ain't got time to waste."
"Let's find something other than that knife. Something tells me it's not gonna help. Getting real Ark Of The Covenant vibes."
"There is nothing in that box that the Bit can't get me out of. Just go!"
Mac ushered the pets out of the room. As Luigi closed the door, he paused to give his brother one last look. "You have two minutes, or I'm coming back in here."
With the door slammed shut with considerable malice, Mario back away from the box, all the way back to the opposite wall. Two minutes, huh? Guess I better hurry up.
The knife rotated in his hand, falling point-downward before he re-established his grip. A trap ain't gonna do much good if I just stab through it.
He shot forward. The room wasn't big enough to gather max momentum, but the Bit's power gave him quite the jump. Raising his blade overhead, Mario brought his knife down on the landing.
The blade pierced right through the box with a nasty crash of impact. And that's when Mario saw it. A small gray prism idly inside.
He did it. He'd found it.
He'd won.
I'm fine.
Blood moves through the human body at three to four miles per hour. Also known as slightly above walking speed. Now, in a world where the average person can drive thirty to eighty miles an hour every day, this does not seem like a very fast speed. Not a very fast speed at all.
But then you realize that a human being is nowhere near a mile in size. And if you were to shrink the ratio down, you would realize that blood flows three feet per second, and it takes about a mere minute to travel through the human body. A drug that was injected into the arm only takes seconds to reach the brain.
But this is not a fact most people are aware of and know offhandedly, at least, they don't go around thinking 'Hmm, my blood should be finished cycling now, time for a fresh lap' as they go about their day.
So you can imagine Mario's surprise when after slashing open the box, the container liquified around his hand. Black ichor latching on. Seeping through his gloves and getting to his skin. Burrowing into every pore and orifice; bulging out inside his skin.
So you can imagine Mario's surprise when wretching his arm back, he could feel his hand go numb. Every nerve in his wrist and forearm went ablaze and the ooze slinked forward. And the agony went exponential. Through his elbow, his shoulders, his up to his neck...
So you can imagine Mario's surprise when pressing the Bit, feeling it's energy go up his body, encountering the ichor, the ichor paused, retreating back to his right shoulder.
And that's when Mario felt it.
That surge of absolute power. The power of the Bit.
Emitting from the fluid.
Get...outta...my...body. His entire body trembling with the power of two Bits clashing at the base of his neck. If that thing gets to my spinal cord, I'm dead! All of Mario's willpower went into driving the ichor out. The standstill intensified every second; the internal class left a searing pain that afflicted itself in ever nucleus in every cell of his body. That agony is what made Mario turn his head away from the conflict. And he lie against the wall, Mario realized a Bit was staring him right in the face, still lying in the hole Mac had left.
With his left arm locking up, Mario reached up to the crevice. He could feel the ichor slowly break through. The throbbing in his arm made it difficult to steadily maneuver his wrist, let alone grab with his fingers. But oh, he was close. So close. Just need to get that second Bit. I'm so close. I'm so close. I'm so close.
As the ichor first made contact with this spinal cord, one thought suddenly filled his mind.
Ganon.
He slid against the wall onto the floor. Not feeling anything at all.
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