Morning rose again, and the other side of the Cinnamon Hills were not as much different when Kirby's team visited it again, but each one of the Smashers knew they needed to stick to the plan that was set for them. Kirby, Piranha Plant, Villager, Sheik, Captain Falcon, Mii Swordfighter, Link, Dr. Mario, Fox, Inkling, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, and Jigglypuff headed east to where they can hear a nearby waterfall, and they did not have the need to travel with an army of Miis, for even though the numbers were increased drastically, they have a higher chance of becoming easier targets for Galeem.
"We're almost near the waterfall," Fox McCloud noted, patting the reflecting shine on the left side of his belt. "From point A to point B would be dangerous, so best be prepared."
"Obviously," Link replied. "Even though we're outnumbered and we had to get rid of the Mii Swordfighter army for a while, it was worth it. The ex-Ultimate Reborn we have so far was right. He's not going to risk everything for his species to be wiped out…"
"Look over here!" Little Mac exclaimed. Waving his boxing gloves, the tiny boxer signaled his friends to what he saw. On top of a sweet, sugary pastry hill connected through intersecting ribbon bridges, the green Yoshi most of the team had been friends with for ten years was sleeping, blocking the road. There was the white aura of the Galeem Lock emitted from the cuddly dinosaur, and the group knew Yoshi was still under Galeem's power.
As though he had sensed the group creeping towards him, the Yoshi Primary instantly woke up and stared at the Smashers with glowing-red irises. Standing upright, the captured fighter began drooling as the symbol of the Master Legendary Spirit flashed on Yoshi's belly – the Queen Metroid. More Shadow Bugs began appearing aside the Yoshi Primary's side, each one forming into Trowlons, Borborases, Spaaks, and Roaders.
"I've got the Yoshi Primary," Link told his friends. "You all attack the Subspace troops." The Champion of Hyrule dashed towards the drooling captured fighter, swinging the Master Sword once as soon as the Yoshi Primary head-butted as an attack and connected with the strong blade. Another vortex appeared between the two opponents, and they had both vanished.
The Subspace creatures started attacking, and each individual fighter used the best of their abilities to fight back: Kirby swinging his hammer and punching ferociously, Dr. Mario throwing his pills, Sheik disappearing and reappearing from clouds of dust as she ambushed her enemies, Fox shooting his blaster and zipping in streaks of blue, Jigglypuff rolling and laying the Rest move on the creatures, Captain Falcon setting his fists on fire and punching each Borboras and Roaders he saw, Villager hopping on each Trowlon and sending out Lloid Rockets to knock out the Spaaks, Wii Fit Trainer using her yoga poses to strike the Subspace creatures, Little Mac punching rapidly, Piranha Plant snapping and devouring with his teeth, Inkling tossing her bombs that exploded into orange color, and Mii Swordfighter unleashing slashing tornados.
One by one, each Roader, Borboras, Spaak, and Trowlon dropped dead like flies and disintegrated into Shadow Bugs. The creatures then retreated away from the Cinnamon Hills. Just at that time, Link reappeared with a rescued Yoshi fast-asleep in his arms. The Master Legendary Queen Metroid that had possessed the green dinosaur also appeared alongside them with the white mist of the broken Galeem Lock.
Each of the Smashers saw both the Spirit and the mist enter Kirby's body, triggering another vision again. As the pink puffball fell stiff as a board with glowing-white eyes, the Inkling managed to catch him in time. The orange squid girl cuddled the paralyzed alien in her arms, hoping Kirby was at least safe as they continued their mission.
"…What do we do now that Yoshi's out of the way?" Fox asked. Yoshi was starting to wake up inside Link's arms, and he quickly jumped off the Champion of Hyrule, knowing he was rescued by Galeem's slavery.
"Maybe travel on the wall's pathway east to the waterfall?" the ex-Swordfighter Ultimate Reborn asked.
"Yep," Captain Falcon answered. The gang then started walking towards the castle, with Kirby seeing another memory from the past. As the pink puffball woke up, he found himself back on the planet of Yangkatzu, where the Dragosmos would get the abilities of the Life Rainbolement. Kirby, who had the rainbow aura, golden irises, and the Smash Ball that was attached to his head, saw Sozo and Hakai, not even looking a different age as when they had last left to travel the stars, were leading the now-older Dragosmos back to the Sky Temple Training Arena.
Now, each of the dragon students aged very fast, and they had certainly matured well, including Ultima, Galeem, and Phoenix. There was also a small group of plant-coated wyverns, all led by their Minister, who had scales as soft as birch and the colors to match the bark too, and he had the Life Emerald hanging on his neck. Ultima, who stayed behind with the wyverns for a while, watched as her two brothers became more resentful over the months that seemed to pass.
"You worry about your brothers, do you not…?" the Minister of the Wyverns asked.
"I feel like they may be doing something wrong here," Ultima answered in a defeated sigh, with her voice now sounding exactly like Faker's. "One brother is drawing attention to himself because he looks like some 'prophet', the other is envious of the former's well-being…" The black-coated dragon with rainbow-spectrum wings looked down on the solid, tangled branches that served as ground on this planet, a small tear dripping from her eye. When the Minister noticed her feeling a little blue, Ultima quickly noticed and wiped away her eye.
"A bug flew into my face," Ultima fibbed with a false smile on her face. The Minister of the Wyverns slowly approached her and tried to comfort the conflicted dragon.
"You are a brave young lady, and your lies cannot hide the troubles your brothers are going through," the Minister advised. "Even though I cannot break up their internal struggles, I have heard of someone that might assist you. When you meet up with the Keeper of the Magic Rainbolement, she will tell you of where this conflict would lead between Galeem and Phoenix should it continue. Until then, I advise you to avoid making contact with your brothers. This is their battle and their battle alone, and I doubt they would let you get caught in the middle of it…" Ultima looked down and nodded slowly, walking back to the Sky Temple Training Arena. As soon as the stadium's engines started, Kirby quickly walked through the walls to get on before it took off into the skies.
"Where were you?" Medley asked Ultima at the entrance. The golden dragon was accompanied by her sister Katzen, and they had noticed Ultima was gone for a rather long while.
"It's… it's nothing…" Ultima answered, watching Yangkatzu getting smaller in the depths of space as the stadium traveled through hyper drive.
"…I'm going to my room," Ultima sighed. The Dragosmo walked to her room, hearing her two brothers chatting behind the room's door. She noticed, as she pressed her head to the door, that Galeem and Phoenix seemed calmer than before. Maybe it was the amount of time and over-practicing with their individual teachers alone that caused them to behave a little better, but it was unknown for sure.
"And then there was this other dragon that REALLY wanted to do it, and I was like, 'No way, missy! I've already got the love of my life, and her name is Medley, but I'd like to be just your friend if you like'," Galeem told his brother with a bit of laughter in his voice, which sounded barely similar to the Galeem Kirby and his friends were going to face.
"…Wow, Galeem," Phoenix renowned in a slightly deeper voice than before. "You sure do spend a lot of time with literally every Dragosmo in the arena. I apologize for being jealous of you… but I must ask: how do you make all these friends?" Ultima slowly nudged the door open with her head and quietly walked in, finally glad that her brothers were getting along.
"…Phoenix, it's not so much as of the looks, though that would explain why I was popular in the first place," Galeem explained, placing one of his front paws on Phoenix's shoulder. "All you have to do is tell wild stories to grasp the attention of any creature that believes in a free will… just stories about how your beliefs are good and tell them how they should live their lifestyle…"
"That would be… creating a cult, would it not?" Phoenix asked.
"Kinda," Galeem answered as he did a so-so gesture with his other front paw, "but it's basically the way of the light, and the way of the light is to restore perfection and drive away the darkness that plagues our souls… if you've got a bit of that light left within you…" Galeem then stopped talking to see Ultima standing near the door's frame. Phoenix noticed their sister was here as well.
"Uh, how much have you heard?" Galeem asked.
"…Plenty," Ultima said as she made a face-palm gesture. "I have to go." Ultima then walked away from the room, leaving Galeem and Phoenix alone. The spectrum-winged dragon glided towards the central stage of the Sky Temple Training Arena, sitting near the edge of the ledge. She looked up at the stars beyond the blue barrier that seemed to flash before the stadium itself, and she watched as each room had the lights dim and each Dragosmo fall asleep for the night. Ultima then looked down from the edge of the stage she was lying on, staring deep into the dark cavern. There was the unidentified matter below the stage, gathered at the bottom of the stadium.
…At least everything turned out fine for now, Ultima thought as she looked up at the cosmos passing by. At the end, the spectrum-winged dragon, using only her front claw, created a little barrier around herself with the Earth Rainbolements in case she was to fall off while she was asleep. Ultima then made herself, with her soft breath, a comfortable bed of leaves with her newly-founded Life Rainbolements. Afterwards, she fell asleep. Kirby floated towards the sleeping dragon like a ghost, his rainbow-aura glow illuminating the stage by which only he can see it.
For whatever reason, Kirby felt his heart beating fast, and he saw the expression on the resting dragon change. The pink puffball seemed to almost pass out because the pain was so great, but it turned out he was getting sucked into Ultima's supposed nightmare.
What Kirby saw was an area of pitch-blackness, but the stars and planets remained in the sky. Ultima was standing on the surface of a rogue asteroid, which stretched only a few multiple times her wingspan on both sides. She behaved as though she was a spectator glued to the rough ground. There, she saw a being of radiant light, concealing its true form for the moment. In front of this strange being was a woman. A woman larger than two Earths stacked on top of each other, though she seemed to probably have gotten bigger.
This woman was the most beautiful ever, having the appearance of a human mother. She was covered in a garment of white, and her golden hair reflected the lights of the stars. However, it seemed as though her angelic face started crying some sort of lavender-colored mesh from her gleaming-blue eyes. She hung her head low in shame and betrayal, her arms folded across her chest.
"You still care for them, don't You?" the woman asked, the mesh dripping from the sides of her cheeks before they floated off.
"Eternia, please," the being bathed in radiant light spoke in a deep, elderly man's voice. "They love us with all their hearts, and we have to give them a chance."
"All these years, and You still think they are trustworthy…?" Eternia asked. "Ha! Those infuriating savages do not know the meaning of trust!"
"Enough, Eternia," the being objected. "I will save them from their sins. Do not let the insanity taketh over thou!"
"…You have no idea who You are talking to," Eternia growled, her hair turning a dim gray and her face now showing flashing-red eyes and dark circles, and more of the purple goo streamed from her face like tears.
"So be it," the unidentified being responded. As Ultima and Kirby watched, they noticed the streams of goo dripping from the insane goddess's face, her hoarse laughter shaking the roof of the stars. As though it had a will of its own, the lavender goo took shape and form in appearances of angels, and each of these strange beings were covered in several different eyes all over their slimy bodies. Even though the spectrum-winged dragoness and the pink puffball had no idea what was going on, they somehow felt like they were actually in the moment.
"Insanitons! Attack!" Eternia cried, sending her army of those goo minions against the radiant being with a single point. Without warning, a supernova-like explosion appeared where this strange being once appeared, seemingly coating the entire vastness of space. Just when the explosion reached the asteroid Ultima and Kirby were standing on, the black-coated dragoness with spectrum wings quickly woke up. Kirby found himself on top of one of the stage's three platforms, watching Ultima sit in place as she breathed hard and sweat dripped from her scaly body. Her heart was pounding ferociously in her chest, knowing this was one nightmare she would probably be traumatized for life.
And somehow… the nightmare was interesting.
Ultima restored the area she was sleeping in to its original state, noticing the sky itself was a baby-blue, mixed with swirls of clouds. She then felt that the stadium's rocket engines seemed to have stopped, and there were clamors of the other Dragosmos waiting to go outside. Ultima quickly rushed towards the entrance, waiting for Sozo and Hakai to open the doors.
"Our next stop… Kukikaze, home of the Air Topaz," Hakai alerted the students. After the two dragons pushed the doors open with their horns, the near-Dragosmos saw where they would be spending the next year and several months. The sky stretched out far and open, and there would be nothing but dense, compressed air if you decided to dive deeper into the clouds. The opaque vapors themselves were as solid as actual ground, and the winds that blew were fresh and pure. The Wind Amphitheres, similar to the Plant Wyverns, were based off their home Rainbolement, with many of these creatures having their textures designed by the different types of weather. There were sky islands serving as the only terrain for the gas planet, suspended in midair by the magic of the Air Topaz, which had tiny hurricanes on top and on bottom of the gemstone and was found on the largest sky island.
Once the Dragosmos carefully stepped onto the soft clouds, the amphitheres slithered to the dragons' eye levels since the winged serpents themselves were much larger.
"Shigi nu taz ne wiz quot pas (Welcome to our home)," the lead amphithere, sporting near-transparent feathers on her serpentine body and having fog as her wings.
"Tic sha fwu sor tu Princess Tornado (The students may address me as Princess Tornado)," the winged serpent continued.
"Thank you for accepting us into your hospitality," Sozo greeted, "and I suppose your species is still learning the common language."
"Of course we still are," Princess Tornado responded. "I see the Dragosmos have learned of the Life Rainbolement and we're taught the discipline of course, where they would stand brave amongst incoming danger."
"That's correct," Sozo continued. "Now we are here to accept your powers of the Air Topaz and be taught the moral of loyalty, where we stay faithful to our allegiance."
"Wis sods (Of course)," the amphithere answered. "Any welcome guest to Kukikaze can let the powers of the Air Rainbolement into their souls as long as they are trustworthy friends of our closest allies…" Kirby kept watching the Dragosmos head off to accept the powers of the Air Topaz, ready to learn more about Galeem's mysterious past.
While Kirby remained paralyzed, his friends managed to travel along the main stone wall's path all the way to the waterfall. As they looked straight east, they saw the light fissure glowing bright and hot.
"Aw man," the Mii Swordfighter sighed. "Really wish Mario and his team were here right now so we can cross over there…"
"And how are we gonna do that, ex-Ultimate?" Fox objected, lightly slapping the back of the Mii's head. "That gap is humongous for us to cross…" The Inkling, who was still carrying the paralyzed Kirby, suddenly noticed a blue crystal on a tiny chunk of rock in the middle of the large river connected to the waterfall. She began chirping in her own language, pointing with her empty hand and alerting her friends about the blue crystal.
"I think Clementine noticed something," Little Mac told the group. Why don't we head over to where she was pointing and find out?" Before any of the fighters took another step, a familiar friend under Galeem's control tried to stop them. It was in fact Lucario, one of the many Pokémon that traveled with the full gang on their journey.
"And just who do you think you are possessing our friend?" the Wii Fit Trainer asked. The Spirit behind Lucario's possession was Dialga, the Temporal Pokémon. The Lucario Primary began growling in a deep voice, attempting to choose one Smasher to draw into the realm of the Final Destination. The captured fighter eventually chose Piranha Plant and dragged the carnivorous flower to himself.
The Piranha Plant quickly stretched its stem and wrapped himself around the Lucario Primary, attempting to strangle the captured fighter to death before the both of them were sucked into a vortex. Once both warriors vanished, there was nothing but the rushing of the waterfalls.
"…So… there's no enemies to fight," Sheik noted. "What do we do now?"
"I suppose we wait until Piranha Plant managed to rescue Lucario," Link answered, taking his turn to hold a still-paralyzed Kirby. "Shouldn't take long… It's quite peaceful, actually…" For the next few minutes, the gang all sat down on the edge of the wall's path.
Meanwhile, the Piranha Plant had his leaves full on fighting the Lucario Primary at the Final Destination version of Spear Pillar, who used his aura abilities the more damage he received. The carnivorous flower began blowing spiky balls off the ledge, trying to gimp the captured fighter off-stage. However, the Lucario Primary kept using Extreme Speed and kept dodging the spike balls. Eventually, once the Piranha Plant saw the captured fighter ready to be knocked out, he began charging up his poisonous spit, avoiding a ledge attack from the Lucario Primary at the same time. The carnivorous flower managed to create a prison cloud that blinded the Lucario Primary's vision. Afterwards, Piranha Plant transformed into a black Piranha Plant with red spikes and swung once, instantly winning the battle.
Once the Shadow Bugs dissolved the background, Piranha Plant was left holding a Spirit Sniper at the Lucario Primary, who was protected by a barrier in the form of a roulette. With one careful shot, the carnivorous flower instantly transferred Lucario's Fighter Spirit back to his body and freed him from the Galeem Lock.
The same vortex appeared again at the wall's path, followed by a glowing-white light this time as before. The other Smashers, excluding Kirby, saw that Piranha Plant carefully held in his jaws a knocked-out Lucario. Captain Falcon rushed over to pick up the waking Pokémon.
"Uh… where am I?" Lucario asked, placing his palm on his forehead and jumping out of Captain Falcon's arms.
"You're in Gallia, the World of Light, where we're all trapped in," Fox answered. The Aura Pokémon noticed Kirby still in his vision state, simply sitting there with his adorable mouth closed and his big eyes still shining white.
"…Any idea what happened to him?" Lucario asked.
"It's only temporary," the Mii Swordfighter alerted Lucario. "Basically, Kirby has a vision that we can never find out every time we rescue a fighter from the Lock, and… this is the result…"
Inside Kirby's mind, the pink puffball was still on Kukikaze, though it looked like time had passed. Almost two years, to be precise. The ten years the young dragons would be training to be defenders of Arcus were almost up, and there were a few years left. Some of the dragons were starting to feel homesick after traveling to so many planets in Arcus' solar system.
The Sky Temple Training Arena was just ready to depart, and groups of amphitheres were cheering their goodbyes. Kirby noticed the stadium leaving and quickly walked through its walls. The pink puffball looked around, noticing that each Dragosmo was becoming more social as they had become fully-grown adults. Even when the ship traveled through warp speed to its next destination, the dragons were still chatting. Kirby even managed to hear two of all the dragons in the stadium talking about how awesome Galeem was.
"Did you see how well Galeem preformed?" one dragon asked his friend. "Turns out none of us could compete with his amazing skills!"
"Boy, am I glad to be his friend," the other dragon laughed.
"Me too!" the former dragon answered. Nonetheless, Kirby managed to travel across the arena to see what else he could find. The pink puffball saw Galeem himself resting in his and his siblings' room with Medley snuggled up close to him. The white-colored dragon outstretched his left wing to cover his golden-snowflake mate a bit.
"…Do you miss home?" Galeem quietly asked. "Arcus, Civiltatula: the City of Dragons, your parents, the usual stuff?"
"Yeah," Medley answered, her voice half-asleep. "I miss all my friends back home, but I'm at least glad I found you. You and the fact that you're popular around here… just the two of us, and none of our siblings to ruin the moment. It's not like we hate them, but it's good to have some space once in a while…"
"I think so too," Galeem whispered, pressing his face close to Medley's. Kirby, rather confused by this romance sparking up between the two dragons, decided to walk away from the room and discover what was going on in the central stage. Ultima was busy with her private lessons with Sozo and Hakai, soaring in the air and using a variety of attacks in her training.
Ultima started creating an electrical barrier around herself, which instantly split into an atom-like structure where she was the nucleus and the fragments were the electrons. However, she was vulnerable to Sozo's and Hakai's fiery breaths. Once Ultima stopped, she noticed her two teachers diving in towards her. She quickly stopped and began teleporting around in flames, using the Thunder Rainbolement to transport her from one location to another and become coated in explosive armor at the same time. Once Sozo and Hakai were stunned by the blasts, Ultima ambushed them by wrapping the two generals in vines and zipping towards them.
"Well done, Ultima," Sozo congratulated. "You have certainly improved on your aiming and accuracy, better than some of our top students even." Ultima, feeling a bit proud of her current goal, unwrapped Sozo and Hakai and released them both onto the stage.
"Thank you so much, generals," Ultima replied while bowing her head. "I really can't wait to train harder once we all are received the Water and Magic Rainbolements."
"You definitely will sometime," Hakai noted, "though our father Ceresor taught us that the Water is symbolic for forgiveness: that we should stop being resentful towards mistakes and keep our emotions in like the calming waves."
"There is also the Magic, which draws in the trust and alliance of your closest friends and companions to accomplish the impossible like the powers that flow within us," Sozo continued.
"I understand," Ultima said. "Thank you for your time." The black-coated, spectrum-winged dragon began to fly off before she heard Sozo say something else.
"By the way, we know about how your brothers behave towards one another," Sozo said. "We've helped them become calmer, so no need to worry. Now head to the front door while we alert the rest of the Dragosmos we have arrived at Mizuku, the home of the Ocean Mogogols and planet of the Water Sapphire." Ultima nodded and departed.
Time had passed, and each of the dragons lined up at the door. Hakai and Sozo walked to the door and used the Air Rainbolements to form transparent skins around themselves, which served as air preservers for the events yet to come.
"We highly recommend you all do the same," Sozo alerted the students, and each one used their powers to create their own air skins. The two generals then pressed their front paws to the stadium's doors, using their already-learned Rainbolement to create a bubble pocket outside. The doors opened, and each of the dragons flew out into this large planet ocean while their teachers kept the water out from flowing into the arena. Once each Dragosmos was out, Sozo and Hakai went outside the stadium and formed a large barrier around the arena from the preexisting bubble before meeting up with their students.
Outside the stadium was a huge world of blue, packed with both colossal and tiny sea creatures. Coral and algae reefs stretched out far and wide, and underwater volcanos spewed out warm temperatures to keep the sea life flourishing. There was a human-sized frog fully-dressed in swim clothing, catching fish in its net to dine on.
"Is that an Ocean Mogogol?" Ultima asked.
"Yes it is," Sozo answered, "and despite not speaking any language, they can understand each one correctly and are keepers of the Water Sapphire." The mogogol in the distance began swimming up to the planet's surface, which was a huge sheet of ice. The dragons swam up to the surface to see what was above the ocean's surface. Lo and behold, there was mountains and caves constructed out of ice, and there were huge cracks that had thawed so each creature could dive into and out from the water. Huts were formed out of snow, and the Ocean Mogogols live in them. Poking out of the largest hut was the Water Sapphire itself. As the dragons approached the village and train in the ways of the Water Rainbolement, Kirby felt the Smash Ball on his forehead flashing bright, and the vision's were over for now.
The pink puffball quickly jerked up, surrounded by his good friends. Kirby gave out a sigh of relief, finally giving him time to realize they were on a pathway near a power-hungry castle on top of a rapid waterfall.
"Finally," Link sighed. "You're awake. Now we can continue this journey safely…"
"If you haven't figured out by now, we're traveling down this exact waterfall to rescue the Eldest Fab Fairy, who is trapped in a blue crystal, and head towards this castle and rescue Bowser to weaken the Northern Barrier to the Galeem Void even more."
"And then we head back to the light fissure bridge and wait for the rest of our friends to open a pathway through," the Mii Swordfighter answered. Kirby, now knowing the current plan right now, nodded in agreement and continued traveling down the road with his friends. Along the way, Sheik was rather curious about the ex-Swordfighter Ultimate Reborn's name.
"So… Ultimate… do you think we should just keep calling you simply Mii Swordfighter or would you prefer a different name?" Sheik asked. "I mean, the Inkling we know is called Clementine. Surely you can think of a name to identify you easier from a group of other Mii Swordfighters?"
"Well, every Ultimate in our timeline has never been given a name so that enemies cannot track us down as easily," the Mii Swordfighter answered. "We believed that names might reveal us to the public and make us easier targets, so we conceal our names. Only those not born from an Ultimate's blood can technically sport a name."
"Do you have an ancestor's name, at least?" Sheik said. "One we can all agree to call you by?" The blond short-haired, blue-eyed Mii began thinking about a good name to be identified as, though that would mean breaking tradition.
"Well, the very first Mii Swordfighter went by the name of Gilbert, though he and his comrades agreed to hide their names from the public eye," the ex-Ultimate answered.
"Do you think we could call you Gilbert from now on?" Sheik told the Mii. "I think that name would be fitting for you…"
"Of course," the Mii Swordfighter, now known as Gilbert, responded in a happy expression. "Gilbert, it is. It's unique and really stands out on its own." Some of the fighters overheard the conversation and agreed to let the Mii Swordfighter keep his new name as they traveled near the top of the waterfall.
