Sorry this one took so long... I've been a little busy these days.

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 14: Lightning Battle

[BGM: Alcamoth, Imperial Capital – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition]

It was daytime again in Skyworld. Somewhere in the city, Jewel hummed to herself as she just came out of a food market while carrying a plastic bag with two Fortune Cookies inside meant to be for her and for her best friend, and then she walked back to Palutena's Temple.

There, we cut over to Jewel and Eight, who were sitting next to each other around a circular table. "So… What exactly are these Fortune Cookies about, Jewel?" Eight asked, holding one of the cookies that Jewel gave him.

"They're crisp and sugary cookies which, as their name suggests, hide a fortune inside of them." Jewel explained. "These fortunes are often messages written in a piece of paper that usually tell an aphorism or a vague prophecy, and these are said to come true."

"Oh, I see…"

"Well? Why don't we open our cookies and see what our fortunes are?" Jewel then breaks her cookie in half as Eight watched. "This is how you break it open."

"Like this?" Eight copied her and broke his next.

"Yep, that's it!" Jewel nodded. "Say, since you're new to this, I think I'll let you read your fortune first!"

"Okay." Eight pulled out the paper from the cookie and looked at it, and his eyes perked up after reading it. "…Oh! This is interesting."

"What did it say?"

"It said, 'You'll feel even more enthusiastic than usual today'."

"Really? That's good!"

"…Hold on, there's more." Eight said while squinting his eyes to see the smaller words better, and he read, "Be careful, though; with this extra enthusiasm, there's also a high chance that someone will try to…" he suddenly blinked. "…flirt with me?!"

Now it was Jewel's turn to blink. "Uhhh… I have no words for this…"

"You're telling me. So, anyways, what about your fortune?"

"Oh, right!" Jewel pulled out her paper and read it… but she raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Um, that's an odd fortune for me…"

"What is it?"

"My fortune said, 'You'll triumph over a shocking encounter today'."

"Huh… I wonder what could this mean?"

"I haven't got a single clue."

Eight then placed a finger under his chin. "Do you really think that these fortunes of ours will come true?"

"We can't exactly say for certain that they will. It all comes down to strong belief, really." Jewel shrugged at the last sentence.

A smile then formed on Eight's face. "Well, whatever the case, I'll always believe in your words, Jewel. After all, I know that I can always trust you."

"I'm always a person who's easy to trust, in general. But thanks anyway, Eight." Jewel smiled back. "So, how about we dig in on these cookies? They're really tasty, I tell you!"

"Sure thing!" Eight immediately accepted.

[BGM End]


Sometime later…

Once Jewel and Eight were done eating their Fortune Cookies (with Eight even feeding a piece of it to Munchie) while spending some time together, everyone was ready to take off to their next mission.

"Moving out!" Pit said and he and the others got ready to run out the gates… only to almost get hit by a burst of energy blasting through.

"Augh!" they yelped.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" Trifle questioned before they took off, finding themselves flying between two masses of thunder clouds littered with tornadoes.

[BGM: Lightning Battle – Kid Icarus Uprising]

"Is the door busted?" Pit wondered.

"The door is the least of our concerns. Hades has rejoined the fray." Palutena said.

"Oh, no!" Zelda gasped.

"Oh, yes. Now we have both his AND Viridi's forces wreaking havoc!"

"Welp… Things just took a turn for the worst." Solo muttered as everyone opened fire at some enemies, both belonging to the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature.

"The Underworld Army and Forces of Nature are out for blood – each other's AND yours. On the Underworld side, Hades has put Thanatos back into play as commander."

Everyone's eyes widened. "Thanatos?! He's still alive?!" Pit asked.

"Apparently." Palutena replied. "And leading the Forces of Nature is Phosphora."

"Phosphora?" Shulk wondered… and right on cue, what appeared to be a moving bolt of lightning zipped past the gang while taking out two Syrens in front of them. Then, this 'lightning bolt' revealed itself to be a teenage girl.

"Yes? You called?" she spoke.

"Oh, I remember how she says that every time she appears out of an Assist Trophy…" Jewel thought.

"So you're commanding the Forces of Nature?" Pit demanded to know.

"We're in the middle of something here! Can this wait?" before anyone could respond, Thanatos suddenly interjected as he charged straight at Phosphora while within a glowing dragon-shaped aura, not unlike Eight's Dragon Soul skill.

"So Thanatos was resurrected as…a glowworm?" Pit raised an eyebrow as he and the others watched Thanatos and Phosphora locked in combat at the distance.

"I was going more for glow dragon." Eight said. "Because that highly resembles my Dragon Soul skill."

This definitely got Pit curious. "Ooh, could you show me that skill sometime?"

Eight chuckled. "Of course."

As they cleared out some more monsters, the gang continued to watch the two commanders clashing until they suddenly created a powerful shockwave upon colliding with each other, nearly knocking everyone back. "Wow, this is crazy!" Eleven exclaimed.

"It's the Underworld versus Nature, their commanders locked in fierce battle…" Palutena said as Thanatos and Phosphora flew beneath the clouds. "I'm ready to pull you all out of there if things get out of control." she then directs the gang into the clouds below.

"I can't believe Thanatos is still alive." Pit said, shooting at a few Monoeyes as everyone flew between some floating canyons.

"And quite perky, from the looks of things."

"Well, that's only fair. I've been finished off a few times myself."

"Hmm… Thanatos, Pandora, Hewdraw… Hades revived them all from the old days."

"Just like Medusa?" Melia guessed, shooting a Lethinium that was inhabiting one of the canyons.

"Yes. It must have taken some work to bring them back."

"But this is Thanatos's third time around!" Pit pointed out.

"Thanatos is a bit of a…special case." Hades suddenly spoke up.

"You're telling me." Pit muttered.

"He is the god of death, after all. So he gets perks like evil powers and health insurance. And free soda."

"Resurrected from the dead – that's some health insurance!" Palutena chided.

Then, Thanatos suddenly flew right in front of the gang and almost bumped into them. "Whoa!" they yelled.

"I gotta admit – he's fast!" Pit exclaimed, firing at a Lurchthorn nearby. "Must be all that free soda."

"Lovely little Phosphora's no slouch in the fighting department, either." Hades remarked.

"Ugh, will you stop trying to butter up all the ladies? It's gross." Palutena said in a disgusted tone.

"There's nothing wrong with compliments." Viridi's voice came next.

"Ugh, here we go again…" Trifle thought, clearly not happy at all to hear Viridi's voice again.

"Viridi! Where'd you come from?" Pit asked.

But Viridi ignored him and continued, "But Commander Phosphora must also be respected for her power!"

"Well, she doesn't appear to be a goddess, so I can kind of see where Viridi's going with." Solo claimed.

"I'm with you there." Palutena chimed in. "Anyways, everyone, just keep after Phosphora and Thanatos. It's great how they're wearing each other out like this. I mean, who knows? You may have to fight them both at the same time."

"Well, we all know how THAT would end." Viridi said.

"Almost makes you take pity on Pitty and his goody-goody friends." Hades replied.

The gang resumed chasing after the dueling commanders, their chase extending through an opening in the clouds above and back into the tornado-ridden sky. There, they could notice that both Thanatos and Phosphora were not looking very hot as Hades called out:

"Thannypoo, are you OK?"

"Oh, yes! I'm just peachy!" came Thanatos's harried reply.

"He doesn't seem peachy…" Palutena noted.

"That's because Phosphora combines the depeachifying power and speed of lightning!" Viridi grinned.

"Honestly, I'm quite curious about how that battle is going to end." Jewel admitted, and so the gang just stood there to simply watch the final moments of the duel. The two commanders seemed evenly matched until eventually, Phosphora charged clean right through Thanatos.

"Finishing blow!" she shouted.

"Aaah! Farewell cryyyyyyy!" Thanatos screamed in defeat as his dragon aura disappeared and he fell down, complete with a cartoonish noise. Phosphora then flies off, but not before taking a quick glance at Eight… and blowing a kiss at him with a wink and departed. And if we cut over to Eight himself, he was actually having a feeling that someone might have just blown a kiss at him, but decided to just dismiss it and focus on what's important right now.

"Bravo! BraVO!" Viridi clapped.

"…Okay, hopefully we'll NEVER see that guy again." Arusu said.

"Oh me oh my. Now whatever shall I do?" Hades questioned with obvious sarcasm.

"That final blow was awesome!" Pit exclaimed excitedly. "She really brought the thunder!" and again, his friends didn't approve of that pun.

"I said lightning, Pit! Sheesh, get it right!" Viridi scolded, clearly failing to notice the pun there.

"Whatever." Hades said. "We'll just keep fighting without someone out there giving orders."

"Are you saying it makes no difference whether your troops have a leader?" Palutena questioned. "What about the Dark Heroes? Can't they just assume that position considering how competent they are?"

"I would gladly do that, but I'm afraid they're incredibly busy now. Now as I was saying about my troops… They're all idiots. Seriously. I don't even know if any of them have actual brains."

The gang flew through the sky, mainly taking out Forces of Nature troops since it seems that most of the Underworld Army have retreated following Thanatos's defeat. Unfortunately, the gang couldn't find Phosphora anywhere.

"Where's Phosphora?" Eleven wondered.

"She must be recharging after her battle with Thanatos." Palutena guessed, and at this very moment, the canyons that laid beyond the clouds suddenly rose up to the surface, making the stormy clouds below now look like a vast raging sea. "Now's your chance. Let's hit her before she fully recovers."

"Good idea!" Zelda exclaimed.

"We may not have the best dental plan, but justice is on our side!"

"Now it's OUR turn to bring the thunder!" Pit declared… aaaand he once again received disapproving looks from the others.

"…Could you NOT?" Trifle muttered.

Pit just rolled his eyes as everyone continued flying forwards, and soon they came upon a literal wall of spiraling clouds directly in front of them. "Phosphora's in the middle of those clouds." Palutena informed.

"Persistent, aren't we?!" Phosphora hissed, and then the cloud wall began firing small bursts of wind at the gang, forcing them to dodge.

"I'm going to open up a path through these storm clouds. Stay sharp!" as Palutena said that, she created a visible opening through the clouds and the gang flew in. Once in, they were immediately attacked by more Forces of Nature troops, especially Flages, Nutskis and Bladers, and several electric beams being shot by Phosphora.

"This is intense!" Eight exclaimed as they were all trying their best to avoid these hazards.

"Hold on as best you can. Phosphora is definitely up this way." Palutena said.

"Nope. There's nobody here~!" Phosphora teased.

"We can totally hear you, you know!" Arusu retorted.

The gang persevered as best they could in this stormy cloud funnel, attacking any Forces of Nature troops that stood in their way, and the moment they began to near the end of it, Palutena spoke up, "Just about there. Three… Two… One… You're out!"

They flew out of the funnel, and into the epicenter of the storm. That's where they saw a floating, technological-looking building that glowed blue and was surging with electricity.

"Whoa… Look at that!" Shulk awed, pointing at the building in the distance.

"This is the Thunder Cloud Temple." Palutena said. "It's been abandoned since ancient times."

"Here already? I didn't even have a chance to take a shower!" Phosphora whined.

"Too bad!" Jewel smirked as they flew closer to the temple, but then it suddenly began charging with energy before firing a blast of electricity at them.

"Wah!" they exclaimed as they barely dodged it, and so they decided to fly around underneath the temple instead.

"I guess she's not completely spent after her battle with Thanatos." Palutena pointed out.

"It's just one fight after another. Today is not my day." Phosphora complained. "The fortune Mistress Viridi read me via a Fortune Cookie didn't paint a very good picture either." by hearing this coincidence, Jewel and Eight exchanged surprised glances. "It basically said 'Your day will not be a pretty one'."

"Wait… Viridi reads fortunes?" Pit asked.

"I wonder what other services she offers." Palutena wondered.

"Anyway… It's on!"

"Looking forward to it!" Phosphora replied.

"Sending you all in!" Palutena said as she directed everyone down into the temple. Thankfully, they didn't get electrocuted anymore in the process.

[BGM End]


[BGM: Thunder Cloud Temple – Kid Icarus Uprising]

The gang landed on the ground, taking a look around the place that seemed to glow with blue electricity. "It looks like Phosphora is powering this place. You'll need to cut off the supply." Palutena instructed. "Some of the pillars and walls are electrified. Don't get zapped!"

They walked up the steps ahead, arriving at an area with six electrified pillars. Two Nutskis then came down to attack them with shots as they dodged out of the way and shot them back… but Trifle accidentally slammed right into one of the pillars during his dodging, electrocuting him.

"YOOOOWCH!" he yelled, as everyone looked over at him and winced.

"Remember what I said about not getting zapped?" Palutena asked.

"Yep, we can see that." Melia nodded, as Trifle quickly recovered and stepped away from the pillar… and then Jewel suddenly began to snicker.

"What's so funny, my princess?" Trifle asked.

Jewel laughed. "Your hair! It's sticking up!"

Trifle then reached his hands up to his hair, and felt that it was indeed standing up as Jewel only laughed harder, leading him to smirk playfully. "Oh, you!" seeing that there was a pillar right behind Jewel, he playfully proceeded to push her into it.

"YOOOW!" she yelled, as her hair was also sticking up and now it was Trifle's turn to laugh, before Jewel joined him afterwards. "You naughty prince!" she teased, as everyone else chuckled at that playful moment between the couple.

After Jewel and Trifle fixed their hair, everyone went up further and turned to the right, where they were nearly hit by a Pew Pew's shot from up the next set of stairs as Pit fired an arrow at it to kill it. Then, they went up the stairs and carefully navigated a path lined with electrified walls, and next they dealt with a Jitterthug before being able to head to the temple's interior via an elevator… which had its edges brimmed with electricity as well.

"This chapter would be way easier if our shoes were rubber." Pit groaned.

"It's not my fault you all conduct electricity so well." Phosphora giggled.

"We'll see who's laughing when we shut the power down!" Arusu proclaimed.

As the elevator was still going up, Eight suddenly felt the urge to strike up a small conversation with Phosphora. More specifically, mentioning to her about the Fortune Cookie coincidence. "Hey, Phosphora?"

"Yes?" Phosphora replied.

"Your fortune was read via a Fortune Cookie, right? Well, I and Jewel also read our fortunes in the same way just now before we set off."

"Oh, is that so? What a big coincidence!" Phosphora exclaimed. "I've heard from Arlon that your name is Eight, right? So tell me, Eight… What did YOUR fortune say? I'm very curious now~!" everyone couldn't help but notice that Phosphora was now talking to Eight in a… rather flirty way. Even Eight noticed that, and it caused him to lightly blush.

"Umm… I…don't really feel like revealing it to you…" he replied awkwardly.

"What, you're embarrassed? Well, that's too bad."

Jewel's eyes then perked up in realization, as this means that Eight's fortune, mainly the second part of it, was actually coming true. But at the same time, she also finally got what her fortune meant too, so no matter what, she along with the others couldn't lose this battle against Phosphora!

Eventually, the elevator stopped and the gang used a jump pad to head into the next area. There, they were confronted by Trynamites, a Nutski and two Zerts, while Palutena noticed something interesting in the middle of the room: it looked like some sort of electric orb with a small diamond-shaped object in it. "I think that's a power supply to some of the areas in this temple." Palutena told the gang as they were dealing with the enemies in the room. "Destroying it will probably make life easier for you."

With that, the gang immediately opened fire at the power supply after they took care of all the enemies until it was destroyed. "Wooohooo!" Pit cheered as the way ahead opened up for them.

"That seemed to cut some of the power, so you can move forward now."

"Whatever. It's no skin off my back." Phosphora merely shrugged it off.

"Obviously not for you." Solo replied, taking notice of Phosphora's 'no big deal' tone as the gang ran through the door and into the next room, where a train car slowly moved in from the left side.

"Is that a train car?" Jewel wondered while tilting her head.

"There's something inside of it." Palutena said. "Break it open, and I'll move its contents near the exit for you to grab." the gang did just that, and near the exit, a few restorative treats awaited them.

"Sure, go right on ahead." Phosphora said.

"…You're not even going to put up a fight?" Eleven asked.

"What do I care? This isn't my place."

"So you're basically squatting in this old abandoned temple. Dignified." Palutena stated.

"Not squatting. Repurposing~! Besides, I'll be out of here before too long."

"And why's that?" Zelda wondered.

"Because the free-spirited Phosphora isn't one to put down roots. Like a hobo." Viridi responded. "Anyway, I've been busy with the Underworld Army, so I've asked her to defeat you."

"We'd like to see her try!" Eight proclaimed.

"Ooh, what bluster! What bravado! I guess I can't back down now!" Phosphora grinned.

Eight lightly blushed again. "Oh, man… She really IS trying to flirt with me…" he thought, recalling what his fortune said.

After going down the path and taking out a Cacaw, a Jitterthug and two Flages at the very bottom, the gang headed into the next room. This time, they found themselves facing a translucent spiraling pathway as they walked along it, knocking away some Bumpety Bombs in the process. Around halfway up the path, Palutena informed them, "Phosphora is busy recharging at the temple's center."

"Got it." Shulk nodded.

"You'll all need to move fast and get to her before she's done."

"Oh, absolutely!" Eight exclaimed in enthusiasm.

"Oh, absolutely!" Phosphora mockingly copied him. "You're such a yes-man, Eight. Good thing you're so cute."

Cute? CUTE?! No one other than Jewel had called him cute before. Heck, not even his own wife, Medea, had called him that. He immediately paused and stopped walking, a very deep red blush appearing on his face as the rest of the gang took notice of that and stopped walking as well.

"U-Uh…" Eight stammered. "You're…you're not just making fun of me now, are you?"

"Aw, you're turning red! That's even cuter!" Phosphora cooed in a babyish voice, which only made Eight blush even harder.

"Sorry to break it to you here, but Eight is already taken." Jewel told her. "Married, even."

"He just embarrasses easily. Don't mind him." Palutena added.

"Oh, don't give it a second thought…ma'am." Phosphora chuckled.

"Uh-oh…" Pit trailed off, as he knew exactly what's about to happen; Palutena was usually a happy-go-lucky goddess, but the best way to enrage her was to call her 'ma'am' because she hates being given the impression that she's old. What's extremely ironic is that due to being a goddess, Palutena really WAS old.

"Did you just call me 'ma'am'?" Palutena retorted to Phosphora with a dangerous tone. "Are you trying to start something?"

"You're right, I'm sorry. You're MUCH too young to be called 'ma'am'." Phosphora replied with obvious fake remorse.

"You know as well as I do the lifespan of gods. And how about you? What's YOUR age?"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours!" both Palutena and Phosphora said at the same time.

The gang could only listen to this odd conversation dumbfounded until they remembered their mission and made their way up the rest of the pathway, landing on a grind rail. And while they rode the grind rail, Pit finally decided to speak after a long silence, "For the record… I don't mind being called 'sir'."

"Yes, well, as much as I'd like to continue this delightful chat, I have things to do." Phosphora said.

"And Eight, we know it's difficult when she's flirting with you, but remember that she's the ENEMY." Arusu reminded, followed by Eleven and Solo nodding.

"Right." Eight nodded firmly in response, the blush on his face completely gone by this point.

Soon, they all hopped off the grind rail and entered a room with a large air vent in the center. "There seems to be an air vent in that platform. Turn on the air to help you all up. To get a current started, move the spheres to the correct place." following Palutena's instructions, the gang moved the three spheres scattered around the room into the holes. This caused the air vent to activate and create a strong current of air that led up to the hole in the ceiling, and when the gang got into it, the current dragged them all up and into the hole, going up a few floors.

"Ha ha, that's neat!" Eight chuckled excitedly once they landed on the third floor. "We can go higher depending on the strength of the air current!"

"Brains AND brawn. He's the whole package!" Phosphora flirted with him again.

This time, remembering Arusu's words from before, Eight managed to resist the urge to blush again as he picked up a Grenade and tossed it at a group of Skreetles to kill them, then everyone jumped down a hole to get to the second floor where they were confronted by a Clobbler, a Dibble Dop and two Lethiniums. They defeated all the enemies and forged ahead, next arriving in a room with three layers and some moving electric currents on each of them.

"Pay attention to the movement of those electric currents." Palutena warned.

"I think it's probably fine to touch them. Seriously, they're perfectly safe." Phosphora said.

"Wah wah wah." Trifle rolled his eyes as everyone proceeded to ignore Phosphora and take out the Forces of Nature troops in the room while jumping over the electric currents, and once they were taken care of, the gang moved on and arrived into another room with a platform in the center, but this time there was another power supply over it with a Pew Pew guarding it.

Of course, the gang first dealt with the Pew Pew before they opened fire at the power supply until it was destroyed. This caused a hole to open up on the platform as the gang dropped down into it… and landing right onto a grind rail.

"Wow wow wooooow!" Pit exclaimed.

"Grind rails, huh? Well, la di da!" Phosphora said dismissively before complaining, "Wish we had the budget for grind rails…"

"Wait, these things have a cost?" Shulk wondered as they soon hopped off the grind rail and landed on the ground, where they began walking along the spiraling pathway as Palutena said:

"This way goes to the center of the temple. Watch out, though – the route looks pretty treacherous."

"How treacherous are we talking?" Pit asked as they all hiked further up, and that's where the treacherous part kicked in; the ground suddenly began giving way below them. After a startled gasp, the gang quickly ran up to safety as the ground fell into the sky below. "Okay, that is treacherous." Pit remarked.

They continued up the path, using jump pads to get across gaps and eventually reached a door and ran inside. By using the jump pad in the center of the room, the gang made up to the second floor and right in front of another door.

"Phosphora is just ahead." Palutena informed.

"Here so soon?" Phosphora asked, and then the gang dashed into the doors, ready to confront the lady of lightning herself.

[BGM End]


The room was large, sporting a large platform in the center while floating pieces of stone flew around. The gang stepped on the platform, and looked up to see Phosphora lazily levitating in the air.

"Hello there!" she greeted, conjuring a ball of electricity on her hand.

"Something's weird… My skin feels all tingly!" Trifle noted.

"The air in here is electrified. It's good for the complexion, doncha know?"

The group sweatdropped. "Speak for yourself…" Arusu muttered.

Meanwhile, Pit began his rally cry while pulling out his Tiger Claws, "Attention, pet of Viridi! You'd better sharpen! Your! Claws!" he declared, doing an epic pose. "I am the servant of Palutena, goddess of light, and-"

*ZAP!* *ZAP!*

"Ow OWWW!" before Pit could finish his rally cry, Phosphora shot a few lighting bolts at him as he jumped back to avoid them.

"Enough blabbity blab, will you?" Phosphora requested, blowing her finger like it was a gun before floating down until she was at level with the gang… but then she glanced over at Eight and remarked, "Ooh, I was right! You do look quite cute now that I'm seeing you up close, Eight!" she gave him a wink.

Eight again was on the urge of blushing, but he quickly fought it by shaking it off and retorted, "Enough of your flirting! Let's get to the main act!"

"Right after you, handsome~!"

[BGM: Boss Fight 1 – Kid Icarus Uprising]

Eight began by firing shots that homed in on Phosphora, but she easily avoided them by zipping around and retaliated by firing blue lightning bolts at him, but Melia used Reflection to put up a reflective barrier in front of him to repel the lightning bolts back at Phosphora… only for her to smirk and let herself get hit by them on purpose, making her body surge with electricity.

"What?!" Melia's eyes widened.

"Heh heh, thanks for the power boost!" Phosphora grinned and then punched the ground, creating a large shockwave of electricity that knocked everyone away.

"WAH!" they yelled.

"Careful, everyone." Palutena warned. "She can absorb electricity, making her much more powerful. So make sure you don't use any electric attacks against her!"

"Aw, I was hoping for another electric therapy. That one felt so nice!" Phosphora pouted and next sent out columns of yellow lightning at the gang, but they dodged and opened fire at her, only for her to zip away from the shots again. "Tch, are you all even trying?" she scoffed and glanced at Eight again with a smirk. "Coming at you, cutie!" she lunged directly at him with a dive kick as he quickly blocked the attack with his shield, but that caused him to stumble backwards a bit as Phosphora took the opportunity to electrocute him, her hands crackling with electricity and got ready to thrust them at him… but then Eight quickly recovered and struck her first with a Kacrackle Slash, freezing her into ice.

Phosphora broke out of her icy prison and growled a bit, "Argh… impressive for a little human like you!" she then looked over at the corner of her eye to see the rest of the gang charging after her. "Do not interfere!" she plants her hands to the ground, sending out strips of yellow lightning that traveled along the ground towards them.

"YOOOOW!" they yelled as they were struck by the lightning, leaving them paralyzed in place.

"There. Now how about we settle this just the two of us, hm?" Phosphora said to Eight in a flirty tone, as he said nothing in response but had a ready expression on his face while gripping his sword firmly, and thus the two proceeded to clash with each other. And apparently, this kind of confrontation drew out the attention of Viridi and Hades, as they stopped at what they were doing to take a look at the fight that's happening:

"Just look at them go!" Viridi spoke up first.

"And I thought the fighting outside was exciting!" Hades chimed in. "But it looks like the real action is in here!"

"Even though I'm quite impressed that this little human is even able to keep up with Phosphora like that, he doesn't stand a chance!"

"Glad you're enjoying the show, oh divine peanut gallery." Palutena said sarcastically.

"I, for one, am honored to have you all in the audience." Phosphora replied nonchalantly as she fired a large slow-moving purple electric orb that homed in to Eight.

"Who's the yes-man now? Kissing up to management won't help you, Phosphora!" Eight retorted, dodging the electric orb before firing a charged shot at Phosphora, but she teleported away, reappearing at the center of the arena where she created a large ball of yellow lightning and launched it at Eight.

Eight quickly dodged it… but then, the orb slammed into a post that was right behind where Eight used to be standing, and it ricocheted off the post and heading towards Eight. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to dodge the electric ball due to it moving too fast after it got ricocheted off, and thus he was hit by it.

"AAAAAAAGH!" he screamed, being electrocuted by it and left paralyzed as the rest of the still-paralyzed gang gasped.

Phosphora chuckled. "Is that all you got, slowpoke?" she then charged towards him to throw a punch… but just then, Eight quickly used a Lunaria item to cure himself off of his paralysis before countering Phosphora with a slash. "Yagh!" she winced. "How?! Humans can't recover from paralysis that fast!"

Eight smirked and showed her another Lunaria item. "No, but with a Lunaria item from my world, they can!" he proudly said. "I happen to have plenty of those, but I also have a spell that can cure off paralysis too!"

"…He can do the Tingle spell?!" Eleven, Arusu and Solo thought surprised.

"Dang, just how many types of curative spells do these four guys have?" Pit thought.

"…You're just full of surprises… but that won't be enough to beat me!" Phosphora declared as she flew away from Eight and fired lightning orbs at him, but he managed to dodge those while he ran towards Phosphora to strike her, only for her to zip away from him and fire out more lightning orbs.

Already knowing what to do about this, Eight casted Acceleratle and charged for Phosphora again while evading her electric orbs as she tried to flee again, but thanks to Acceleratle's effect, Eight was able to keep up with Phosphora's speed and it soon came to a point where she got tired after using too much of her power, allowing Eight to freely strike her with a Hatchet Man.

"UGH!" she groaned as she was knocked back and landed with her hands on her knees while panting, feeling severely weak. "This is ridiculous… You're not supposed to be easily able to keep up with me! What's with you humans anyway?!"

"Never underestimate us humans!" Eight shot back… and then he put his sword away. "But there's one thing that you still don't know about me…" a cyan aura began to surround him. "I'm not entirely human."

"Wh-what…?" Phosphora breathed, her eyes open wide as she watched Eight leaping up into the air.

"I happen to be a half dragon too!" Eight finished his sentence, and immediately plummeted down towards a stunned Phosphora with Dragon Soul.

Phosphora gasped, since that highly reminded her of the draconic aura that surrounded Thanatos while he fought with her, and since she was too weakened to do anything, Eight flawlessly rammed into her, dealing the mortal blow of the match as Phosphora screamed in pain and fell to her knees.

[BGM End]

"Did you see THAT thunder?!" Eight exclaimed.

"No. 'Cause you CAN'T SEE thunder!" Phosphora retorted, looking up at Eight bitterly. "I take back what I said before. You're not cute at all!" she scowled in between breaths as she tried to stand up, only for electricity to surge out of her body as she cried out in pain while levitating in midair, and then she dissolved into particles.

"This can't be happening!" Viridi shouted in utter disbelief.

"But it can." Eight replied sternly, before he turned around to face the paralyzed gang. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you." he assured with a smile and casted Tingle on them, freeing them out of their paralysis state instantly.

"Ah, thanks!" Pit thanked. "That final blow you just did… was it that Dragon Soul skill you mentioned to me before?" he asked.

Eight nodded. "It was. What did you think?"

"It was SO cool!" Pit gushed, leading Eight to chuckle in response.

"Are you hurt, Eight?" Zelda asked in concern. "Because that shock you received from that electric ball kind of sent me over the edge..."

"Nah, I'm fine." Eight reassured. "I've been electrocuted far worse than that..." he trailed off, leading his comrades to shudder in unison as they knew exactly what moment Eight was talking about.

"Ahem, anyways…" Pit cleaned his throat to change the subject, as he looked up at the ceiling and declared, "We're coming for you next, Viridi!" buuuut then the place began to rumble as debris fell from the ceiling.

"Ouah!" the gang yelped, stumbling back in startle.

"This place is going back to the dogs without lovely little Phosphora." Hades said.

"Smarm it up while you still can, Hades. We'll be after YOU soon enough." Palutena said and extracted the gang out of the crumbling temple.


Later, at Viridi's Temple…

"That's UNACCEPTABLE!" Viridi yelled at Phosphora as her wounds were being tended. "First Cragalanche, then Arlon, and now you?! How hard can it be to get rid of one little angel and especially NINE LITTLE HUMANS?! Plus, did you really had to flirt with a HUMAN?! You know, someone who's part of the race we're trying to EXTERMINATE?!"

"Oh, lighten up, Mistress." Phosphora replied nonchalantly as always. "I already changed my mind about him, so there you have it. And as for the rest, they just got lucky is all. Although…" she began sheepishly. "You're not, like, mad at me for losing to a human who also strangely claimed to be part dragon, are you?"

Viridi sighed. "It's frustrating, but no. Those humans should be dead by now, but they're a lot stronger than I thought."

"You're telling me. We really shouldn't underestimate them. But one day, I would definitely want a rematch. It will not end up like this."

"I understand, but right now you need to rest." Viridi said and walked off. "Ugh, I guess I'll have to handle things myself for now on…" she thought, and then she bumped into Arlon.

"Oh, my apologies, Mistress." Arlon apologized.

"It's fine… I just need to be alone for a bit to cool myself off."

"I'm afraid that'll have to wait, because I want to alert you to something… unusual happening outside."

"Unusual?"

"Yes. Come and see." Arlon led Viridi to the temple's balcony and directed to the sky… and when Viridi did it so, she was met with the strangest sight she's ever seen; from the look of it, it appeared to be a large fleet of floating islands.

"What in the world…?"

To be continued…


Man, I had fun writing the aerial portion; the music that plays in that part is an absolute banger, so you should definitely listen to it if you haven't yet! I also had fun writing the fight with Phosphora as well. Just goes to show that no one should ever underestimate others that are from a different world, right? ;D

Speaking of Phosphora, I was originally going to go with the story's flow and have her flirt with Pit... but then I thought, "...What if I make her flirt with Eight instead?". This definitely changed things up with several dialogue differences by adding this idea in, so I'm glad I went with that!

Ending this chapter up with a cliffhanger! Just what were those strange floating islands anyways? Find out next time!