Mario had been to Bowser's castle many times but this was different. Instead of breaking in to save the princess, he was being escorted by the big Koopa himself. Kris, Susie and Ralsei followed closely behind Mario as Bowser led them to a flat section of wall. He roared at the wall and it collapsed down to reveal a tunnel. Bowser turned around to find Mario relatively surprised.

"So you have a way to get around the castle without going through the massive pools of lava and bottomless pits while I had to traverse through all those things?!" Mario said incredulously. Bowser chuckled and stepped into the tunnel.

"I'll probably demolish this tunnel after this whole debacle, so you can't find it."

As the group exited the tunnel into the basement of the castle. They saw Kamek, the magikoopa working away on some spells. He turned around and sneered at Mario before hurrying out of the lab. At one corner was a blue-skinned lady with sharp glasses who was working away on some papers. She looked up and noticed Bowser at her desk.

"So you got them?" she asked in a monotonous voice as she gestured towards Mario and the Fun Gang.

"Yes Nastasia," Bowser said proudly, "I assume the teleporter is ready to go."

Nastasia nodded and stood up from her chair. She walked over to a large platform with wires and cables sticking out.

"Nastasia," Mario said with surprise, "You work for Bowser now?"

"Yeah, he gave me job as his dimension attendant," said the woman dismissively, "Now, there seems to be a barrier around the dimension so you have to go three at a time. Otherwise, it will probably be too much for the dimension to handle."

Bowser turned to the Fun Gang and Mario.

"You heard her," Bowser growled, "Any volunteers?"

"I go," said Ralsei with a fluffy look of determination on his face.

"I guess it's my job," muttered Mario as he raised his arm.

"I'm the leader of the Fun Gang," said Kris as he turned to Susie.

"Hey," complained the purple reptile, "I wanna bash some heads."

"We need someone to watch the teleporter just in case anything comes out that isn't good," said Nastasia, "Bowser won't be here because he needs to address his minions on the issue and I am not adept in combat."

Susie grunted begrudgingly and stood beside the teleporter. Bowser turned to the three volunteers and wished good luck and exited the room.

The trio stepped on the platform and Nastasia pressed a button.

"Find Blumiere and Tippi as soon as you can," said Nastasia's fading voice, "We cannot afford a second chance."

...

As the trio entered Dimension D, Mario almost immediately gasped. It was jarringly different to what Mario remembered it used to look like. Instead of a blank room with green patterns running along the walls, it was a lush green landscape with with a clear blue sky.

"This doesn't seem too bad," muttered Kris as he turned to Mario, "You've been here before haven't you?"

"I've fought Dimentio here," said Mario as he felt the grass beneath his feet, "It didn't look like this before."

Ralsei looked around and pointed at a small trail of smoke in the distance.

"I feel some positive energy in that direction. It seems those Pure Hearts are over there."

As the trio of heroes walked towards the smoke's direction, they found a path which led to a small brick cottage. A white tophat hung on a wooden door. Kris looked at Mario and gestured him to open the door. Mario wringed his gloved hands and knocked on the door. There was no answer. Mario knocked again harder. Suddenly, the door swung open and Mario saw a diamond-capped cane pointed straight at his nose. There was a blue man dressed in a white suit and cape with a monocle. He had a cold look on his face but he realized who was knocking on his door.

"Mario," laughed Blumiere, "I didn't expect you out of all people to come here."

Blumiere turned around.

"Tippi, it's Mario!" he called into the hallway. A lady with rainbow hair came out from a room with a small blue boy who was her son trailing behind her. As she saw Mario, her face lightened up. She ran to the door hugged Mario.

"I thought we were stuck here forever. I missed you so much," she said gratefully. She motioned towards Kris and Ralsei.

"Who are these two?"

"That's Kris and Ralsei," said Mario, "Bowser managed to locate you too and he sent us here to get you back home."

"Huh," muttered Blumiere then he turned to the Fun Gang, "Which dimension are they from."

"That is why we are here," said Kris with a hint of apprehension in his voice, "There are rifts forming in dimensions which is causing a lot of trouble."

"While we were on an adventure, we got transported to Mario's dimension and for some reason," Ralsei looked around nervously.

"We were fight a jester while we were being transported and he summoned..."

Blumiere's face darkened.

"The Chaos Heart..." he muttered, "But how did he do that. There were specific instructions in the Dark Prognosticus. It can't just happen spontaneously."

"Even worse," stammered Mario, "It revived Dimentio."

Tippi grew paler and Blumiere's nonexistent knees buckled.

"You can't be serious," said Tippi in shock, "I thought we ended that clown."

"So we thought," said Mario, "Both of the jesters teamed up and they have the Chaos Heart, the Dark Pronosticus and my brother."

"Wait," said Blumiere sharply as he held up his velvet-gloved hand, "Dimentio already has what he needs to destroy the multiverse. Why hasn't he done it now?"

"That's a question I haven't really thought about Bleck."

The voice of Dimentio echoed around the dimension, Kris drew out his sword and Mario drew out his hammer. Blumiere scowled at the sound of his former name.

"How are you doing my depressed polygon?" asked Dimentio mockingly, "I see you've made a living in my dimension with your pixl girlfriend. And oh my! You two had a child. Is his name Bleck Jr?"

"Enough is enough," said Kris, "Why are you here?"

"I am surprised you three heroes managed to get into this dimension without triggering my security measures. I assume you used Nastasia's technology but this actually makes things better."

"W-w-what do you mean by that?" stammered Ralsei as he looked wildly around himself.

"Oh, it's simple, fluffy boy," sneered Dimentio, "It means I can end all of your games at the same time! You see, I rigged this dimension so that if anyone were to come in here after I dumped those to in here, it would self-destruct. But you managed bypass that. Wait why am I explaining this to you?"

Suddenly a pink blur shoot through the barriers of the dimension and smashed through the house. The dimension started to ripple and sway.

"We have to get out!" yelled Tippi as she grasped her son, "It's game over if we don't make it."

The group didn't need to be told twice. They ran towards the hill, Kris leading them as reality seemed to dissolve into a white blank sheet. The little cottage was swallowed by a expanding crevasse. The inside was a swirling mess of colors. But the group almost reached the exit point but Dimentio shimmered in front of them, blocking their progress.

"That's far enough," he sneered as he snapped his fingers and purple and yellow star appeared around him and started spinning like buzz saws. Kris slashed at Dimentio with his sword but it bounced off as if it were nothing.

"You foolish knight," snickered Dimentio as he spread his arms, "You can't touch me because of the Chaos Heart's immunity."

Suddenly the pink blob that triggered the destruction caught up to the group. Paper Mario turned around and recognized it.

"Kirby, suck those stars!" yelled Mario. Kirby's mouth enlarged and started to suck all the stars into his mouth. He then belched them out in a flurry of purple and yellow which obscured Dimentio's vision."

"Around him NOW!"

Blumiere, Tippi and their son ran to the teleportation point and they disappeared. The flurry dissipated and Dimentio looked mildly amused. His images split in half and again until there were multiple Dimentios encircling the heroes.

"Oh no," muttered Mario as the jesters fired stars at them. Kris' sword transformed into a shield and he blocked most of the stars. Mario picked up Kirby and threw him at one of the jesters. The clone crumpled on impact and Kirby started to take out the other clones. The original Dimentio flicked his fingers and the clones pounced. Mario and Kris stood back to back, holding off the jesters. Ralsei was dodging all the attacks but he couldn't keep it up for longer. But he just thought of an idea. He ran to a clearing and put his hands together then raised his hand and a small star flickered. Suddenly, all the clones exploded in a puff of smoke and Dimentio started to look tired, lowering to the ground.

"Huh," he murmured, "Why do I feel so..."

He glanced at Ralsei but instead of an insult, he responded rather ambiguously.

"Pacification... That power..."

"Quick!" hissed Ralsei, "To the exit."

Kris, Paper Mario, Kirby and Ralsei ran for the exit point. The surroundings were now a senseless mess. Purple vortexes sucked up whatever it could and colorful patterns glared out of the background. They reached the exit and Kris addressed an issue.

"There's four of us," said Kris, "Who's going to stay behind a bit longer?"

"You heroes go ahead," said Ralsei, "I make sure the spell stays on until...ACK!"

Ralsei was pulled back by Dimentio. Kris yelled and tried to grab Ralsei's robes but it was too late. The last thing he saw when he disappeared was Ralsei being held by his scruff by Dimentio as the dimension imploded.