A Battle in Björnstad (pt. 1): Clearing Enemy Forces

Johan: Hey, I'm a little busy helping Patchouli repair the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. I can't talk much right now, but here's the next chapter for this story. And if you're wondering what happened to J.C., read his other two stories first; the SDM crew is keeping his body for a resurrection ritual now.

This is truly a heartbreaking moment. I have heard about the destruction of Angel Wing One, my family's personal airship, over the southern coast while escaping to the safer territories of Amarylliselle, a friendly republic which has sent some of its soldiers to assist Rosträdgård. Among those lost were my husband, many higher-ranking soldiers, and the leader of the Black Guard. I broke into tears upon hearing of those unnecessary deaths, and it was necessary for Lillian and Stefan to comfort me when my time of grieving came. I have never been one to hold a grudge against an enemy force, but those cultists are tempting me to inflict the same brutality they repeatedly inflicted against the kingdom. Were either of my children to die by their hands…

The Amaryllisellites have been doing their best to clear the southern coast, but the Orm's Lords have the naval superiority; progress in battling their fleet has been slow, and—as a side note—their aerial forces have been in a grand stalemate with ours. There seems to be no end in sight.

One last note: I need to focus on the upcoming funeral so that the family and its friends can witness his gentle face one last time.

-Queen Ingrid, letter to then-Black Guard lieutenant Gustaf Larsson

With Mario's group…

"Let's-a go…" Mario sighed to himself. With his allies near him, he entered a grand hall that stretched across the first three floors of the building, but what shocked him was the lack of immediate threats in the vicinity. Truthfully, the only interesting object in the beautiful hall was a Helveting-filled chamber of organic composition reminiscent of the one encountered in the Hive Totem on Tallon IV. Perhaps the only significant difference was that it was twice as large, stretching from the base of the first floor to the top of the second. There was a security desk with metal detectors nearby, but that did not capture the group's attention, nor did the chandelier at the very top of the hall.

"What is that-a?" the plumber muttered. As he tried to discern what the ominous entity in front of him was, he was approached by Fox, a Smasher who had some familiarity with the blob and the creatures associated with it.

"That is a nest for what Lillian called the Helvetingar," the pilot answered quietly. "I've seen one of those things with Samus on Tallon IV, but it wasn't until later did I learn the name of the creatures from the princess herself, during my healing process."

"The Helvetingar? Stefan mentioned those-a creatures when he came to our-a home."

"Yeah; the Helvetingar are insectoids that can fly fast and use their stingers to poison opponents with Igel." Fox recalled the painful moment when one of his shoulders was pierced by a long stinger, an event which led to his near-death by Igel's merciless grip.

"Thanks-a for the information, Fox. The last-a thing I need is-a getting poisoned again. Agnetha's needles were-a terrible enough." Mario removed the Ultra Hammer from his belt to be ready, leaving the staff hidden in his sweater. The other Smashers and the Rosträdgårdian fighters also prepared themselves before approaching the pulsating blob. Hoping to incinerate the creatures inside, the plumber conjured a grand fireball and knocked it into the entity with his hammer, piercing the outer surface and creating an inferno in the inner chamber. Before he could attack again, however, the agitated Helvetingar began fleeing from their burning domicile and, after noticing the unwanted guests before, prepared to kill.

RRRREEEEE!

As the monstrous bugs felt burns spread across their bodies like a painful cream and fled the blob in response, the Smashers and their allies shielded their ears to avoid permanent hearing damage. To make matters even worse, several invisible Lords on the upper floors unveiled their presence to clarify that the heroic characters were about to face a grueling battle inside the hall. As a final insult, two of the cultists barricaded the front entrance with a thick wall of ice, preventing escape.

"I fear that we may experience casualties during this battle," Rosalina, keeping her magical wand in hand, sighed. Her Luma floated by her side despite the vicious bugs rattling its body with unchained fear.

"You know you're having a great day when you must battle both demonic insectoids and their creators," Marth moaned sarcastically. This impending skirmish was the last thing he wanted, as if his corruption alone was not troublesome enough. Nevertheless, he unsheathed Falchion and braced himself for the immediate violence.

"Well, ain't-a this a bitch?" an annoyed Wario spat. Not long after uttering his semi-profane statement, both sides began attacking each other with extreme prejudice. The miser, equipped with a bag full of handy items, chucked two Bob-ombs up to the second floor. One of the walking explosives was deflected by a dark shield, but the other unintentionally dismembered a Helveting that was vying to impale Yoshi with a stinger.

Boom!

As the bugs charged at the group from different directions, Rosalina constructed a shield to deflect dangerous attacks from the front. Mario, Fox, Wario with a Blast Cannon, and others with fast projectiles prioritized attacking the numerous Helvetingar due to their superior agility, but such a task was easier said than done. On top of having to dodge offensive spells, stingers, and anything remotely dangerous, their own projectiles were frequently avoided. Mario powered up the Staff of Björn and proceeded to snipe as many targets as possible, including a few Lords that were distracted with other Smashers. Nearby, the guards fired away with their laser-powered weapons. Pikachu, Pichu, and Pit tried to enter a nearby elevator to reach the top while the others were fighting, but there was a major problem.

"Man, the thing's not working!" the angel moaned loudly. As he came to realize of the elevator's lack of functionality, he and Pikachu were violently struck with Igel-filled stingers that almost nailed them to the nearest wall. Pichu, despite being terrified by the mere sight of the bugs, launched a blast of Thunder to protect its allies, though this action was not without a bit of recoil damage. Yoshi swallowed multiple stingers and, being a creative dinosaur, spat them back at their owners. Meta Knight soared into the air to engage a few Lords while the trio next to the elevator took the stairway, reaching all the way to the fourth floor and taking a break. The other Smashers continued to lob projectiles behind the safety of Rosalina's shield, including coconuts from DK's weapon, lasers from Fox's blaster, and energy shots from the Staff of Björn. One Rosträdgårdian guard, the driver, had his chest doubly pierced by a stinger and an icicle from a cultist. He had to be pulled out of the fight by his comrades. Meta Knight was blown away by a shadow sphere and violently crashed into a wall. Wario unleashed a violent fart to grant his allies some breathing room, even if they had to deal with the noxious smell. Mario seized his opportunity by igniting the gas with a fireball.

BOOM!

The Helvetingar unlucky enough to be caught in the gas suffered severe incineration, an event that introduced piercing shrieks within the hall—leaving a cacophonous symphony which only exacerbated the loudness of the battle. As with the cultists incinerated during the race between Captain Falcon and Magnus Hedin, the insectoids were repugnant demons facing a fiery death, though not necessarily in retaliation for destruction and the deaths of innocents; they and, by extension, their masters were simply too dangerous to be left alive. Roy soared into the air with Blazer before decapitating three flying foes who were harassing Mario. Olimar stuck a fourth with his red Pikmin, burning the sickly surface and the organs underneath. As the plumber produced an ethereal blade from the tip of his Rosträdgårdian weapon, letting him slice apart bugs that dared to approach him, several cultists realized what he was grasping with his hands.

"It is the staff…" a cloaked man hissed. His veiled eyes widened with dark desire as he schemed to steal the magical staff from the Smashers. "It is ours to take…"

"We shall obtain it before our victory," the woman next to him sighed sinisterly. Predictably, many Lords focused their fire on the older plumber, something which attracted the attention of the Smashers.

"Is it me, or are the Lords suddenly seem fixated on Mario?" Fox announced, keeping his reflector up to push back several projectiles and only rolling away when two aggressive Helvetingar tried to impale him from different angles. Marth and Young Link worked together to slice apart incoming bugs, but when the Hero-King was launched by an ethereal spear, the young Hylian retreated to the safety of the front desk. There, he sniped a few foes with his bow, including the Lords who were threatening to shatter Rosalina's shield. However, he failed to account for a stray Helveting within his blind spot.

SPLACK!

A stinger ate through the Luma guardian's shoulder within a second. Those who were not overly distracted gasped in horror as the protective shield collapsed, leaving the group far more exposed to attack. Indeed, the fearsome bugs immediately swarmed their foes and, especially in conjunction with magical spells from the Lords, began pushing them back. Most Smashers received at least one poisonous spear to their bodies, and the few who were lucky enough to avoid poisoning were attacked by the cultists. Rosalina redirected some magical spells back to their users, including those that tried to incapacitate or kill Mario, but even that could not lessen the pressure by a grand amount.

"Shit!" Mario growled. He desperately fired shots at the cultists on the upper floors, but while he did eliminate a few of them, the Helvetingar proved more troublesome than expected. As a stinger came close to grazing his ribs, he held the staff in a defensive manner—extending his arms and holding it in front of him. As a major surprise, the weapon conjured a temporary shield in front of him and completely robbed the poisonous killer of all its momentum, forcing it to crumple and fall straight down to the floor.

"This-a could be helpful." Keeping his barrier active, he sprinted towards the same stairway utilized by Pit and the two mouse-like Pokémon, undeterred by the Lords and their insectoid creations. To be safe, he had several fireballs thrown to reduce hostile pressure on him and his group. Upon reaching the third floor, he contributed by immediately eliminating the cultists on the level just below him. A cloaked woman to his left launched an ethereal wheel with extended blades on the outer radius. This weapon came dangerously close to severing a carotid artery, though it only left a wound on Mario's left shoulder. Before he could retaliate without restraint, the same cultist knocked him down with an electrical blast, leaving paralyzed for about more than several seconds. She created an elongated blade to slice his body to pieces, and with the staff out of his hands, she believed him to be helpless.

BOOM!

Such a thought could not be any farther from the truth when Mario ejected a surprise fireball from his right palm. As the cultist screamed in pain, he regained the staff and tapped into its power to create the ethereal blade, ensuring that his adversary was split in half. Before blowing the head off another with a concentrated energy beam, the plumber had to dodge sword strikes from a Lord who sought to avenge his ally's death. A simple uppercut was enough to send the robed man spiraling down to the first floor, whereupon he was blown apart by Roy's dreaded Flare Blade.

"Good riddance," the plumber grumbled. After eliminating the cultists on his level, he focused on the Helvetingar and their attempts to eliminate the Smashers. He withdrew the Staff of Björn from the battle, and his next attack consisted of shattering a giant fireball to many pieces with a spinning strike from his hammer. The force behind his maneuver was sufficient in forwarding his attack, and the resulting hellfire not only transformed unlucky insectoids into living fireballs but damaged the bridge-like extensions of the blob as well. Nevertheless, many foes retreated into blind spots of the attack and even continued to attack the Smashers, all of whom were bunkered near the front entrance so that the flames would not leave them roasted. Rosalina reactivated her shield, her injury doing little to hinder her mental concentration. Diddy and DK took potshots with their weaponized food bits, as did Fox and Young Link with their weapons. Roy sliced an incoming stinger in half with his blade, with the blackened mess splattering onto the floor behind him. Ike tried to attack with Ragnell, only to leave himself vulnerable to a stinger aimed at his chest.

SPLACK!

"Agh…!" The muscular swordsman retreated to safety when more Helvetingar tried to slaughter him. Wario chomped off the head of an unfortunate bug and spat it out when his tongue tasted Återuppliva-enhanced blood.

"Bleck! Disgusting…" Agitated by the foul taste, he chomped on half a clove of garlic. The familiar flavor most desired by him zipped throughout his mouth and, even better, provided an increase in strength and speed. His fists were powerful enough to blow apart his highly aggressive enemies, and the Wario Waft experienced a shorter recharge period such that it was easier for him to disorient potential targets like a true harbinger of chaos. Young Link utilized the fast-cutting Spin Attack when multiple foes tried to strike from different angles. To accelerate the pace of the battle, Wario allowed his gut to be filled to the brink with gas and, at that point where he was ready to explode, unleashed a grand fart that almost the entire hall. Predictably, his head pierced the ceiling and became stuck there for more than a minute. Mario, half-amused to witness his old rival get comically stuck in a position several meters away from the ground, formed a giant fireball again, this time letting it fall into the gassy column without additional force. Rosalina expanded her barrier at the last second to keep herself and the other fighters protected from the incoming explosion. The plumber himself took cover behind the railing separating him from the open hole in the center of his floor.

BOOOOOOOOMMM!

Many of the Helvetingar faced instant crispification followed by a slow, agonizing death. Tried as they might, they failed to prevent hellish torment from swallowing them like a blazing tidal wave. The few that were lucky enough to avoid getting caught in the large-scale attack were swiftly shot by the Staff of Björn. It would have been a massive relief for Mario to realize that the battle was over, but the presence of stingers in and around the Smashers left his mind overshadowed by concern. Returning to the ground floor, he took his opportunity to ask his group a vital question:

"Were-a any of you impaled by those-a bugs?" It came to his attention that, aside from Marth, most Rosträdgårdian guards, Olimar, Roy, and DK, his allies had gaping wounds on their bodies, insinuating prior impalement by the Helvetingar. Keeping Igel's ability to rapidly kill in mind, he wondered if there was enough for the group to disable the northern generator for Björnstad's city-wide barrier. To better clarify their status, the affected fighters raised their hands.

"I think most of us got stabbed by stingers, Mario," DK muttered quietly. Meanwhile, one of the guards immediately began contacting Ingrid via telepathy.

"Your Majesty, we were attacked by the Lords and a swarm of Helvetingar at the barrier's northern generator," he announced. "Our allies have been hit by poisonous stingers, as have one of our own soldiers."

"I will have our best medics cure you all upon return," the queen responded. "However, you must be quick, or your group will not be able to get back in time."

"What is the status of the other group?"

"The second group is being strongly hindered by several Jord-Marodörer that had already left a large sinkhole in the city. Its vehicle recently got stuck in a deep ditch, and the ground near the southern generator is plagued by unstable terrain."

"I wish our allies at that place luck." As the soldier several communications, Mario entered the stairway and reached the doorway to the fourth floor, noticing a resting Pit and his Pokémon allies.

"You guys-a tried to go ahead of the group?"

"Yeah, but our path to the upper floors is locked," Pit chirped. "Plus, Pichu seems a bit shaken by those bugs." Indeed, the Tiny Mouse Pokémon was unnerved by the monstrous appearance of the Helvetingar. Its body shook visibly, and the creature appeared to be on the verge of tears. Pikachu, being the caring older relative that it was, did its best to comfort its cousin by hugging and gently stroking ears.

"You could've-a helped us during the fight-a." Mario cast an angry glare at the angel, concerned that he failed to contribute during the fight.

"Yeah, but besides little Pichu being scared and all, I was not in the mood to get impaled again. Oh, and I still can't fly. Does that sound like an adequate explanation to you?"

"…fair enough. Next-a time, however, please contribute to the fight-a." As Mario examined the room around him, he realized that it was a three-floor warehouse filled with boxes of many shapes and sizes. Solid white lamps illuminated the room in place of a large chandelier and other common light sources of Rosträdgårdian architecture. Grand shelves of tough steel gave the wooden containers a place on which to rest their expansive and often-heavy laurels. There was enough space for footsteps to echo across the cold air, though not to the same extent as the main hall in the central palace. While the quartet waited for over a minute, the rest of the Smashers and their Rosträdgårdian partners entered the room, undeniably wounded but still ready for another encounter before the poison could ensnare their physical health. Wario, carried by Rosalina's magic, had traces of rubble on his head from getting stuck in the ceiling. With the group together again, Mario led it to the floor's freight elevator with Pit's guidance. The transport and its paired stairway were locked, prompting a guard to bring her set of keys into play. The red cube, one of only five in a colorful group, was inserted into the elevator's key slot. A near-silent click echoed into the hall once the elevator powered up and its doors unlocked. Another key, this one having an orange hue, was used to unlock the stairway. Some Smashers resorted to using the stairway after there was no more room to fit another person into the elevator. A faint moan from the motor at the top of the shaft quietly reverberated throughout the car while the fighters prepared to shut down the barrier's northern generator. No one was prepared for the elevator to stop moving when it reached the seventh floor.

Wham!

"Something's not right here," Fox whispered nervously. He fruitlessly mashed the button corresponding to the top floor, only giving up when nothing beneficial occurred for at least ten seconds. A mild form of frustration sank into the pilot's mind. This new problem could possibly get the entire group stuck in the building for much longer than necessary. If that was the case, then the process to disabling the barrier would be slowed greatly, if not outright grind to a halt. The non-functional elevator, disturbingly, would be the least of Fox's worries when a faint growl echoed from above the car.

"Rrrrrrr…"

"Did you hear something?" DK asked, keeping his voice low to avoid attention. The Smashers and Rosträdgårdians kept their heads up, wondering what ominous figure rested at the top of the shaft. Was it a monster, they assumed? Or was it something else conjured by the fear-inducing Lords? No one truly could take an accurate guess, but one thing was for certain; something was near them, and it could potentially threaten their lives.

"Keep-a quiet…" Mario ordered. But it was all for naught.

WHAM!

"…!" The plumber temporarily lost his composure as long claws pierced the top of the car like it was merely a thin sheet of paper. Firing several shots to ward off the new threat, Mario remained low as Fox jammed his right index finger against the open button, hoping to exit in time. It did not take long for the vulpine Smasher to realize that something was wrong.

"Hey, this thing's not opening!" he yelled, just seconds before a guard was mercilessly impaled at the right arm. While the other Smashers who could do so fought back, remaining low in the process, Mario used the staff's blade function and punctured the doors next to him. The blade outputted enough thermal energy to melt solid metal and, with Mario's necessary guidance, create a large hole through which the group could escape. The affected area was blasted away…

BOOM!

…and the group fled to a four-floor room containing a large generator at the center of the room. This enormous device was conical in shape, converging to a small point at the top, and resonated with a green glow to match with the small tower on the roof. A glass column surrounded it to protect bystanders from exposure to dangerous energy. Four hatches were found at the bottom for maintenance, next to a locked glass door. The upper floors had metal rails to protect against harmful, if not outright fatal, falls. The area had fewer lights than the lower levels, reducing visibility despite the intensity of the generator.

WHAM!

The claw-fingered threat completely torn through the car's ceiling and shoved the doors open, which were nonfunctional due to improper alignment. As it stepped into the room, the green glow exposed what its monstrous form was.

"Oh, boy," DK gasped. "It's a Legionär." While staring into the monster's murderous eyes, the group taking the stairway—Pikachu, Pichu, Pit, Meta Knight, Roy, and Yoshi—gasped upon noticing the new threat.

"Huh?" The angel struggled to swallow as the towering behemoth growled before him. Owing to Lina Lindqvist never having utilized this monstrous beast like some of the other captains, he was frozen in place by the Legionär's appearance: clawed fingers, towering body, disturbing skin, sinister teeth, and eyes filled with the intent to murder in any violent way possible, without mercy or remorse. As if the Helvetingar were not terrible enough, this creature was now rearing its ugly head. Why, Pit believed, was fate punishing them with another threat to be eliminated, especially after they had suffered the threat of poisoning during the last fight? Pichu, meanwhile, almost felt like shrieking; besides its heart almost stopping out of fear, its near-loss of cool was stemming from the Legionär's fearsome appearance, almost rivaling that of the already-terrifying Giga Bowser. Mortified, it almost tried to flee, only to be halted by Roy.

"What now, Mario?" Diddy quietly asked, hoping that the plumber had a formulated battle plan.

"I'll-a try to kill it with the staff-a," Mario replied. "You guys-a go to the top and-a disable the generator."

"By yourself-a?" Wario protested. "Are you nuts? That-a thing will rip you to shreds-a!"

"Yeah, but guess-a what? One, most-a persons in our group are-a poisoned, meaning we don't-a have much time. Two, the staff looks-a powerful enough to annihilate a monster like this-a one here. Three, if part of our-a group goes to the top-a now, we can leave this-a place quicker and-a take out potential hostiles above. But if you aren't-a poisoned, you can help-a me."

"I'll help," Marth muttered, stepping to Mario's side with Roy, the wounded driver, and DK. Olimar, Pichu, and two other guards, despite their healthy status, chose to travel with the group instead. The Legionär unleashed a piercing roar as it attempted to slaughter the travelers, but when Mario lobbed a fireball with his hammer to capture its attention, it suddenly focused on the lone quintet that bravely decided to stay behind. While the group ascended to the top floor, Mario preemptively fired a charged shot from his magical weapon, charring a part of the creature's chest. His subsequent attempt at trying to create a gaping wound ended in disaster when he was hammered in the gut by a thick hand.

"Try to destroy the heart!" DK ordered. His coconuts were aimed at the chest area, though some were dodged or blocked by the Legionär. The guard, being more experienced with killing towering creatures that could rip apart entire populations if given the chance, fired his weapon at the chest with strong accuracy despite his stabbed arm infecting him with serious pain. The two swordsmen stabbed at the legs to cripple the monster, but both were ultimately slapped away and nearly impaled by nasty claws. The Legionär created a mighty shockwave by clapping its hands together, blowing away the muscular ape and his rifle-wielding ally. A creative Mario lobbed a fireball into the air and, at the right altitude, fired a shot from the Staff of Björn to create a fusion projectile of light and fire. His monstrous foe dodged too late due to the attack's fast speed, leaving a great area of the left shoulder and upper arm roasted. Simultaneously, the burn around the chest was already healing slowly.

"Damn…" the guard coughed while standing up. He utilized the grenade-launching function of his weapon until it reached the point of overheating. Next to him, DK slapped the ground next to the Legionär to save ammo for his weapon and help the swordsmen send their enemy toppling over. Roy repeatedly slashed the legs while swiftly avoiding counterattacks, but when Marth tried to do the same thing, he felt his body transform into immovable ice come the moment of the demonic voice's return.

Turn your sword against your allies and drink their blood. Do you see your red-haired ally over there? Start with him. Show him neither mercy nor restraint, embrace your gift, and become a valuable servant to the Lords. Give in to your bloodstained desires.

"Don't force my hand…" the Hero-King grunted. As he struggled to fight back, Roy unavoidably noticed his friend's struggle. During this same period, the other three began attacking the Legionär from different angles.

"Are you okay, Marth?" the hero of Pherae asked.

"Stay… away, Roy. I do not want to harm you…" He felt his right arm reach out for Roy's throat as if it were trying to strangle the red-haired swordsman. As with Elice, the urge to kill slowly began eating away at his willpower. "Come no closer…"

Kill him…

"Marth, please stand back up. We need to fight that monster." As Roy tried to aid his friend, Mario noticed what was occurring.

"Marth, what's-a going on over there?" He was busy firing away at the monster and evading when a claw or a pair of sharp teeth approached him. His skin was barely grazed by a lone claw soaring from above.

Kill him!

"I will not!" Marth's face turned a bright red as his mind clashed with the will of the voice inside him, which sounded almost like his own, albeit with a malevolent aura. Roy, unaware of the threat closest to him, began lifting his taller ally. The voice, understandably irritated by Marth's refusal to kill his ally, bellowed with a demonic tone that almost froze the Hero-King's blood:

KILL HIM NOW!

"Are you okay?" As he tried to examine the agonized expression on Marth's face, Roy brought himself closer to the monarch, hoping to better discern the problem. Just before he could do anything helpful, however…

"GET… AWAY!"

WHAM!

"What…?" Mario was shocked to notice Roy being punted into the eighth floor like a helpless football by Marth, a person fueled by inhuman strength due to his curse. He only had a second to figure out what had given the young king his new strength, however, before the Legionär tried to attack him again with its vicious teeth and claws. Roy, upon recovering from the pain of being slammed into a wall, remembered Marth's transformation and allowed a chilling thought to burrow its way into his mind; it was possible that the king's specific case of growing vampirism was progressing faster than expected. If no remedy—temporary or not—was not located soon, it could very well be too late for him. He noticed Marth retreating to the elevator car, fearful of his growing thirst. Meanwhile, the remaining fighters were greeted with a dark shockwave created from the monster slamming its fist into the ground, blowing all of them away.

"Okay…" DK groaned weakly. "That hurt." He rolled away to recover, but when the Legionär tried to chomp him in half, he reacted too early with a headbutt. His hasty decision left him open to two claws, both of which pierced the area underneath his ribs.

SH-SHINK!

"Oh, shit…" The ape had the strength to yank himself away from the creature, and it was this same strength that allowed to retreat at a brisk-enough pace despite his injuries. Mario and the guard had to defend him with staff shots and laser beams from an automatic weapon, respectively. The plumber combined a large fireball with a charged shot; when the product of those two projectiles merging blasted the Legionär in the chest, the results were equally spectacular and organically gory.

BOOM!

The explosion itself was a blend of soft, surreally magical light and deadly fires, a combination which illuminated the room for at least five seconds, if not for a longer period. The death of the short spectacle revealed the heart of the Legionär, a purple entity with the power to vitalize such a mighty titan of death. Were it to be destroyed, the battle would be won by those who opposed the Orm's Lords since the initial encounters in five different worlds. As a defensive reaction, the monster repeatedly hammered DK into a wall and almost knocked him unconscious…

WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM!

…while also putting him at risk for possible brain trauma. The guard launched another grenade to get the Legionär's attention, but when it came time for him to destroy the heart, he was popped into the air with a powerful stomp and then launched all the way to the eighth floor, not too far away from Roy's location. After his collision with a wall, he was nearly unconscious. Even in his bout of dizziness, however, he could already tell that his weapon had been lost during the attack. This left Mario as the only person to stand against the monstrous opponent. Set on ending the battle sooner rather than later, he equipped the blade function of the staff to slice off the legs after sliding underneath the monster in the middle of a claw swipe.

SLASH!

The weight of the now-legless creature resulted in a large thud vibrating the floor, almost a miniaturized earthquake within a large room. Mario sustained deep scratches across his back when trying to slice off the left arm, almost forcing him to slow down, but his pain failed to stop him from severing both arms in the long run. The last line of defense was the set of sharpened teeth; though it was mostly immobilized, the Legionär still possessed the flexibility required to reach out and possibly bite the plumber. Mario was forced to pull away on his initial attempt to reduce the heart to bloody chunks. To stun his enemy, he tossed many fireballs in rapid succession.

B-B-B-B-B-BOOM!

"This is it-a," he grunted. His projectiles were enough to leave the creature horribly blinded for the rest of the fight. Furthermore, a shot from the Staff of Björn shattered several teeth into yellow-white pieces, an event which left the inhuman creation in a defenseless position. Mario grinned as he prepared to eliminate a weaker version of the fearsome enemy that he had encountered in Bowser's domicile. Extending the blade, he plunged the tip into the heart with a loud but short yell. Black blood instantly sprayed up to his face before the plumber pulled the staff's tip away, the thrashing of the defeated monster nearly destabilized his balance, and the loud roar was enough to leave him with ringing in his ears. Nevertheless, he was fast enough to leap off and cover his ears to avoid permanent hearing damage.

"That-a takes care of that-a." With the battle finally over, he proceeded to better examine what was happening with Marth. As he approached the elevator car, there was some angry, barely audible groaning from the frustrated Hero-King.

"What's wrong-a, Marth?"

"I'm going out of control," Marth whimpered with much agitation, "I just know it. I'd never thought it would come down to this, experiencing the same agony as Elice… I catapulted Roy into the immediate floor above us to protect him, and I would have killed him if I hadn't…"

"Stay strong-a, Marth. We'll-a do our best to find some-a way to stunt your transformation before finding Lina. I know things-a seem bleak now, but you can't-a give up now." Mario gently escorted his Altean ally out of the ruined elevator before traveling up to the eighth floor to reunite with Roy and the guard. Nearby, DK shook himself awake and, after noticing the dead Legionär, joined the other four fighters.

"Thank goodness for that," he sighed. Keeping his weapon close to him, he shrugged off the throbbing headache from repeated cranial blows as his limbs carried him to the nearest upper floor. Just as he was rejoining the group, however, an unexpected event unraveled within seconds.

Oooooo…

"What was that?" Roy quipped. The tall generator in the room's center suddenly began to power down, producing a deep hum that gradually decreased in pitch until it was no longer audible. The number of sparks rapidly plummeted to the zero boundary, and the signature green glow faded with a moderately fast rate and gave way to blackness. Mario and the others froze as they tried to understand what just occurred without warning.

Had they done it? Had they finally disabled the northern generator to the barrier?

A sense of hope flooded their bodies as they realized of being one step closer to thwarting the cultists and their plan to revive their unholy savior. Rushing upstairs, they were expecting the large group on the top to be making plans on reuniting with the quintet. Once the groups reunited, Mario assumed, they would be on their way back to the royal palace. The door at the stairway's highest level was opened swiftly, but what the plumber and his allies discovered were not what they had expected.

"What the hell…" DK gasped. In front of him was the entire group, entirely immobilized by ice and slowly suffering an icy fate that was almost a slow death. Even more shocking, however, was the control panel itself. Far from being merely deactivated, it was outright destroyed. Switches and buttons were smashed apart, and the removed maintenance panel near the bottom revealed many internal components to be heavily damaged. The most striking detail of all was the fact that four Lords with green insignias on their cloaks were standing next to the device, with a fifth resting on the floor in a dismembered mess. One of them quickly noticed the unfrozen quintet.

"More interlopers, hmm?" the speaker, an older man with a short beard, hissed. "Well, you are already too late. We have destroyed the control panel to the generator, and there is nothing you can do to fix it."

"Wait, after spending a long period defending the generator, you suddenly decide to disable it by smashing the console apart?" the injured driver, utterly dumbfound by the evil group's latest action, asked. "That makes no sense."

"Our leader has given us a new order to permanently disable the generators to make way for a special surprise that shall be unleashed upon Björnstad. One glimpse of it, and it will all make sense. Too bad you will not live long after its appearance…." He and his cohorts exited the building via miniaturized portals, leaving Mario thaw his frozen allies via giant fireball. A large puddle formed when hot and cold collided in a flash.

"Geez, that ice was cold," Fox shivered. "Thanks for the assist, Mario."

"Did the Lords-a freeze you all?" the plumber questioned. Owing to the cultists possessing cryomancy, it would have not been out of the question to assume that the group was frozen at some point during a fight.

"Yes, undeniably so," Ike responded. "What we assumed was an easy trip turned out to be an ambush by five Lords. While we did kill one of them, the other four combined their powers to freeze us all. What I noticed before being immobilized was the presence of green emblems on their robes."

"Green?" Wario grumbled. "I don't-a see what you're-a getting at-"

"The cultists normally have white emblems on their uniforms. Perhaps the ones we encountered have some type of higher rank within the organization like the captains. Maybe Queen Ingrid can give us some insight on that matter." Ike brushed his blade clean of ice shards that were stuck to the surface.

"Well, let's just get outta here before the poison kills most of us," DK demanded. With the elevator not functioning, the group was forced to descend via stairway. Unlike the one first witnessed, this one stretched all the way down to the basement, allowing everyone to exit on the ground floor. Rushing past fried Helvetingar corpses and thawing out the thick sheet of ice, the group reentered the parked vehicle and attempted to earn some medical treatment. The return trip was effectively a mirrored version of the initial one, with landmarks placed on opposite sides of the vehicle. There were only two major differences, however major they were. The first was the presence of painful wounds on nearly every traveler in the vehicle, including those created from poisonous stingers. It was no surprise, then, that many members had their clothing stained with blood and showed signs of experiencing pain. The second—and by far more disturbing—of the changes was the growing pain from the inside of every person inflicted with Igel.

"Pikachu," an agitated Pikachu moaned. As with the previous instance in Phendrana, its stomach started to feel strange, but as the vehicle rushed through the war-torn city, its body was soon swallowed by devastating pain. This was especially true when the transport was only less than a kilometer away from the palace. Other affected fighters experienced the piercing pain as well, which one guard—a woman who substituted for the wounded driver in piloting the vehicle—immediately noticed.

"Almost there," she muttered harshly under her breath. One of her comrades contacted Ingrid for additional support at the palace. It was at the towering home of the royal family that those who were not poisoned did their best to carry Igel's victims to the interior, supported by additional palace security. Mario felt searing pain on his back from the deep scratches, but he refused to let them hinder his self-chosen task. The Staff of Björn and the Ultra Hammer were concealed within his sweater.

With Luigi's group, minutes earlier…

WHAM!

"Mamma-!" Luigi yelped. The vehicle that carried him and his group was suddenly slapped into the air by a Jord-Marodör, and when it came crashing down face-first, all travelers inside fell on top of each other before it fell backwards. To add insult to injury, the terrain underneath the group was unstable and slowly collapsing.

"We'd better start haulin' ass right now," Wolf suggested firmly. Kicking open the door to the outside, he and Luigi led the group away from the sinking road underneath. Lucas nearly tripped and fell into the forming hole, and he certainly would have been doomed to die if Ness had not grabbed him in time. While the fighters were busy with regaining their composure, and while one of the guards reported to Ingrid about the group's status, three Jord-Marodörer emerged from holes in the ground to confront their newest targets.

"Well, this should be fun," Captain Falcon sighed with a semi-sarcastic tone. He preemptively attacked with a Falcon Kick to the forehead of a mutated worm. The impact created a large and painful burn, though it was insufficient in preventing a retaliatory attack via swift tongue-slap. A second Jord-Marodör tried to trap the two PSI users, Luigi, the Ice Climbers, and Mister Game & Watch within a corner.

I don't think so, Ness pondered confidently. He launched a faster but weaker burst of PK Flash into the monster's eyes. The blindness that followed gave the cornered Smashers enough to fight back with pure fire, flaming food bits, and sharp icicles. Unable to accept more pain, the giant worm sprayed dangerously caustic acid at the group.

Sssss…!

"Beep," the two-dimensional man gasped, almost frightened by the dangerous liquid. He and his allies were lucky enough to dodge it in time, or they would have been reduced to dissolved corpses. His randomized Judge produced a large '5' on the sign, creating an electrical shock for the monster. All Smashers in the group then tried to attack simultaneously, only to be bombarded with a swarm of dangerous tongues. Some of them left significant lacerations on their victims, and others delivered a brutal slapping in which the immediate pain was prolonged and harsh. Luigi launched green fireballs and occasional bursts of the Thunderhand to reduce pressure on him and give others a chance to fight back. Popo froze a tongue before it could impale him and shattered it with his hammer.

CRACK!

"Not this time," he grunted. With the use of Belay, he and Nana did a surprisingly effective job at reducing the pressure on the group. Nearby, the third Jord-Marodörer tried to swallow Lucario, King Dedede, Jigglypuff, and Young Link while they were avoiding a piece of unstable terrain.

BOOM!

Its effort at doing so failed explosively when Snake, armed with the specialized Nikita, shot one of its eyes with a remote-controlled missile. Jigglypuff attempted to contribute by using Sing, but the noises of the battle ensured that no mutated worm would ever hear of its lullaby. It was then slapped away with enough force to bury it into a nearby building. Sonic, always the speedy hedgehog, dashed across the battlefield and took quick potshots at all three Jord-Marodörer, even enhancing one of his signature moves—the Spin Dash—with fire because of the Flame Ring he was now wearing. Slamming one of the monsters with full force, he signaled Luigi and his group to attack while they had the opportunity. The younger plumber struck the forehead with a brutal misfire of the Green Missile, but before the others could follow his lead, their foe burrowed into the ground as a defensive measure.

"Where did it go?" the hedgehog questioned. "I wonder if it gave up…"

"I'm not-a sure about that," Luigi replied. "But while it's-a gone, let's-a take care of its friends." His group focused attacks on the worm attacking Falcon's group. The Falcon Punch, besides leaving deep burns, dazed its target for about a minute. Other Smashers took advantage of their enemy's vulnerability and attacked with whatever they had at their disposal. However, due to their ignorance of a Jord-Marodör's true weakness, they could not vanquish it immediately. Even worse, the creature that had retreated to a place underneath the sewers returned to swallow some victims alive. Sonic and a nearby Wolf retreated in time, but the Ice Climbers, Snake, R.O.B., and Jigglypuff were not so lucky. They were all ensnared and swallowed whole.

"Engaging thrusters," the robot beeped. His propulsion was hard at work to free him, but the tongues were stronger than he expected. To agitate the monster, he fired laser beams designed to cut through thick skin. The Ice Climbers froze more tongues, albeit with little success, and Luigi caught one with his Poltergust 5000 before yanking it hard enough to create some pain for the worm. Setting suction to maximum power, he utilized enough physical strength to downright tear the organic extension off its roots. While the monster roared in pain, Nana and Popo froze the mouth open to allow an escape opportunity. Nearby, the Jord-Marodörer facing Lucario's group chomped a guard in half at the waist before decapitating her.

"A soul is lost," the Aura Pokémon sighed in a disheartened manner. Bone Rush, another attack never used in Smash battles, came into play with the form of an elongated stick. Lucario drove its weapon deep into the worm's forehead before creating a long wound across its back with unrelenting power. A weak roar emerged from the fallen enemy's mouth before fading away altogether.

"Consider that a punishment for wreaking havoc upon this distressed city." Lucario rushed forward to assist Falcon and his group, who were assailed by a continuous barrage of acidic blobs. Dedede swallowed one projectile from the group in a risky attempt to spit it back, but when he finally caught it, his mouth started to experience quick damage, forcing him to fire the blob prematurely. His aim was off-center, striking the side of Jord-Marodörer instead of its face. As he keeled over in pain, the Ice Climbers leaped to his side.

"What's wrong?" Nana asked, unaware of the damage to the king's mouth.

"Swallowed acid… Tried to… spit it back…" the king coughed. "Need help…"

"Don't worry," Popo assured. "We have a way to help you." He utilized a weaker form of Blizzard to let the hapless Smasher rinse his mouth with clean water. A rinse of two minutes was what Dedede needed to ensure that his mouth—inside and out—was not totally ruined for the rest of the adventure. Nearby, R.O.B. blinded a regenerating Jord-Marodör. Ness and Lucas exploited this latest event by unleashing PK Fire from both sides of the body. At the very end of their desired paths came the usage of PK Thunder Two; when the two PSI users climbed to the creature's back, they penetrated thick skin in a spectacular fashion, leaving behind roasted holes and destroying two hearts. While trying to repeat the process, the giant worm of many tongues and vicious teeth slapped both attackers away with its body before rolling around to flatten other targets.

The second worm tried to chew Lucario, Snake, Wolf, Game & Watch, Sonic, and Luigi to the point of death—and it had its tongues as assistance. One tongue managed to leave a laceration on Sonic despite him traveling at a far quicker pace than his opponent could hope to achieve, forcing him to almost crash into a wall. Wolf and Snake fired away with their weapons, Jigglypuff whirled around with Rollout, and Luigi had his specialized vacuum inhale and spit out an acidic glob aimed at his direction. The guards from the palace fired away with their assigned weapons. Unlike Dedede's mouth, the Poltergust 5000 was relatively resilient to caustic substances, suffering only very minor damage when it catapulted its projectile. Snake left behind a Claymore mine before rolling away from a row of sharp teeth. In its pursuit of the soldier and his allies, the dangerous worm of the Orm's Lords sustained some damage to its lower jaw. It then burrowed into the ground when the pressure on it proved to be too much.

BOOM!

While nearly everyone else did his or her best to win the battle, the successor of Big Boss aimed at the worm that was wounded by the PSI users and fired another missile. He had to utilize his camouflage so that neither creature would be able to seek him out, especially in an environment as chaotic as the current battlefield. The missile managed to destroy two more hearts and further weakened its target's regenerative factor. R.O.B. overcharged his lasers to slice off the head of the same foe, which was hellbent on swallowing Luigi and the guards next to him. He did not, however, anticipate the recipient of such a mighty attack to enter a mindless rampage, owing to his ignorance of how to permanently defeat giant worms from the depths of a disturbing hell. A single slam against the ground forced many Smashers off their feet and exposed them to furious tongues and acid globs from the healthier Jord-Marodör, which retreated into the ground again and did not resurface. There was also the issue of the ground falling into further instability, and it forced many fighters to fight on more limited space. One building, already badly damaged from the war, collapsed and sprayed rubble around it. A piece hard enough to crack someone's cranium nearly struck Wolf, deflected only when he activated his reflector.

"Close call," the lupine commando grumbled under his breath. His attempt to pierce thick skin with his blaster was almost successful, but the headless monster slammed into him and launched into a road that was about to collapse. Mister Game & Watch, despite being assaulted with globs, landed on the rampaging foe's back and brought his signature Judge into play once more. Lady Luck would prove to be on his side, at least momentarily, when his sign showed the dreaded number '9'.

CRACK-BOOOM!

Instead of its usual effect of blowing away targets with extreme force, the sign created a large, ear-breaking explosion of electricity that, besides charring everything around it, decimated the last heart and spelled doom for the rampaging monster. The Smashers and their Rosträdgårdian partners focused their fire on the remaining beast in the fight. Lucario unleashed a loud yell as it, with the staff summoned by Bone Rush, leaped to the top and produced an oozing cut with perfect horizontal symmetry with its target's body. The creature was sliced in two during the attack, leaving its front half separated from the rear. Luigi pierced what was left of the forehead with a charged Green Missile, with Sonic aiding him with fiery bursts of the Homing Attack. The hedgehog's rapid attack speed was, for some bizarre reason, enough to light the defeated worm's front half on fire. A loud crack shattered the air before its source collapsed into a ditch.

"Well, that was quick," Sonic muttered. "Never thought slicing open their backs would be enough to kill them. All we've gotta do now is to reach our destination, and I think it's not too far away from here."

"It's just straight ahead," Wolf commented, pointing a claw at a building that closely resembled the one explored by Mario's group. "With those ugly worms off our backs, we can-"

Crack!

"Stand clear," Lucario ordered. The ground beneath it and the rest of the group began collapsing due to severe integral damage, and had fast reflexes been absent during the event, everyone would have suffered an unpleasant fate. The sounds of crumbling concrete echoed inside the newly-formed hole as the affected road lost a portion of its trail to a hole leading to someplace past the stinking sewers.

"Am I smelling sewer water now?" Popo moaned, covering his mouth in the process when his nose detected a foul smell.

"It smells like Wario had a diarrhea fit while farting," Nana remarked.

"So, as I was saying," Wolf continued, "With those ugly worms off our backs, we can disable the generator for the barrier and help the palace's defense systems work again."

"Can't argue with that," Snake grunted. "Let's get moving before it's too late. Hope Mario's group is doing a better job than we are…" He and the others resumed their travel on foot, with Sonic speeding all the way to the other side. The terrain away from the battlefield was more stable and strong enough to support the combined weight of every Smasher and guard. Some relief overcame the group during the stroll, but this would be short-lived when an ominous rumble froze it in place.

"What now?" Falcon muttered. He remained cautious while figuring out what was approaching from an unidentified angle. His back was next to Wolf and Luigi when the group compacted to avoid being separated during an unexpected attack. The heart inside his chest was pumping faster despite the mind ordering it to calm down, and the bounty hunter was far from being the only one experiencing this form of tension. Nearly all fighters—even hardened ones like Wolf and Snake—felt their hearts race in anticipation, and the Ice Climbers even gripped each other's free hands as a sign of cooperative comfort in times of impending danger. Snake had his Solid Eye equipped to detect possible hostiles in the area, and he immediately noticed many approaching entities on the radar; the Smashers themselves were cluttered into a large group at the center.

"Get ready," he commanded. "We may have more enemies to deal with." Not too long after he spoke, the rumbling intensified and soon transitioned into something more frightening.

CR-CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACK!

"Oh, you have got to be freaking kidding me," Ness groaned in frustration. Surrounding him and his allies were six Jord-Marodörer, including the one that had previously burrowed into the ground near the end of the first fight. All of them were ready to inflict horrendous pain to the Smashers and the Rosträdgårdian escorts, minus the woman who was already ripped to shreds by a defeated worm. Meanwhile, Sonic contemplated his potential choices as he stood next to the entrance of the pathway towards the generator.

"C'mon, think," he mumbled hesitantly. "What to do, what to do, what to do…" His eyes shifted focus between the doors close to him and the murderous worms which surrounded his allies, and his mind conjured two options for the scenario. On the one hand, he could enter the building by himself and try to disable the barrier's southern generator. This would help complete the mission quicker and grant to the group an excuse to leave sooner, but it had the risk of the fastest hedgehog alive being completely outnumbered if he were to encounter something that not even his speed could conquer. On top of that, abandoning his friends and allies during a major fight was certainly frowned upon by the Smash Brothers, a dishonorable tactic in an organization that demanded integrity. On the other, he could stay with the others to fight the worms, allowing a better chance at victory while leaving the whole group weakened for later battles. Sonic himself was still relatively healthy, so he could save himself the trouble by avoiding a grueling skirmish. In the end, his mind came to a decision.

"I'm sorry, guys, but I think it's better if I do this." Retreating to the building, he gently pushed a wooden door and immediately realized that the area was moderately populated by vampires, though he initially did not recognize them as such. His body pushed itself behind a pillar to stay hidden from reddened eyes. The architecture of the room was virtually identical to the tower concealing the northern generator, with the only difference being the lighter coloring of the walls.

Looks like they have this place on lockdown. Perhaps I can try to sneak past them and reach the stairway on the other side, but if they catch me, I'm in trouble. Going full speed before reaching the goal will alert them, so I need to time my pacing: not too fast, not too slow. Sonic peaked his head from the column and, after noticing his foes focusing on other parts of the room, swiftly leaped to the next safe spot. He repeated this process before reaching the stairway, whereupon he silently creeped into the isolated pathway. With the cultists out of sight, he tapped into his raw speed to enter the warehouse above the main hall. It was there that he encountered a pool of blood installed into a warehouse that was mostly devoid of all boxes and other related objects. As with those found in Lina's residence in Altea, the vampires around the tube-supplied container slurped blood like there was no tomorrow. The hedgehog grinded his feet against the cold floor and retreated to the safety of a box, but it was already too late. One vampire, whose hands were not gathering blood, caught him within her sights.

"An intruder dares to disturb us," she snarled with a cold voice. Her crossbow fired an explosive bolt that knocked Sonic out of hiding, leaving him with mild injuries. Despite this, the speedy Smasher got to a strong start when his Homing Attack ignited several foes, rendering them vulnerable to follow-ups. The Spin Dash hammered most enemies in the area, stopping only when a distant cultist electrocuted Sonic and made him crash into a wall.

WHAM!

"Ow… That nearly cracked my skull." Standing up after a short blackout, Sonic assumed a defensive approach and circled around his enemies repeatedly, avoiding attacks as he did so. With every third cycle, he struck down a foe with a fiery Homing Attack, unaware that those who were already scorched were still standing due to their vampirical resistance. His path changed to an erratic zigzag pattern when several cultists caught on to his original tactic and utilized barriers to stun him. While leaping into the cold air, he tackled a bloodsucking cultist and dragged her all the way to the far end of the room, right behind the small stack of boxes in a corner. His right fist was about to knock her unconscious, but she fiercely and suddenly gripped his throat with superhuman strength. It was in this moment that the hedgehog finally noticed the red eyes and extended fangs.

"What the?" he gasped. The chill he felt from observing the red voids and oral knives in front of him was strong enough such that the hairs at the back of his head were frozen needles swallowed by fear. Before long, a magical spell—represented by a red aura—from the vampire produce two leaking cuts on his chest that delivered blood to the immortal woman's mouth. Sonic felt serious pain during this attack, but he eventually gathered the power to punch his way from the fierce grip and flee from her. During his escape, it became shockingly clear that the burnt vampires were quickly regenerating. And they were still thirsty for blood. All of them utilized specialized magic related to sanguinary rituals, hoping to taste the speedster in a violent manner. Some used magical ropes with sharp tips, others used to auras on the ground, and others used many needles of rusted composure. The hedgehog managed to dodge every obstacle except for a needle that grazed him at the left leg. More fiery hits were scored on the vampires, but they still failed to end the battle.

"Okay, this is getting annoying." Realizing that he was outmatched, he fled to the upper floors containing the generator itself. There was a shocking set of attributes to the room, but they had nothing to do with the green aura of the machine or the humming. That which ensnared the hedgehog's attention was something far more sinister.

"Oh, man." Surrounding the generator was a series of stone tables closely resembling the solitary object present in Lina's hideout in Altea. No corpses were present, but this did not reduce the sick feeling inside Sonic's stomach. Drains were drenched with blood, and the fact that they had a foreign aura relative to the rest of the room's architecture strictly implied that they were shoehorned into the floor at some point during the war.

"Gotta move fast before they catch up to me." Wasting no more time, he resolutely sprinted with all his physical might and soon reached the top floor in seconds. His next challenge was in the form of a lone lieutenant, her eyes filled with murderous intent.

"Let's get this crap over with." The continuous bane of Doctor Eggman tried to utilize his hypersonic dash to catch his enemy off-guard, but he would be the victim of an unexpected counterattack when the lieutenant impaled him underneath the ribs with a magical blade.

SPLACK!

"What the-!" He felt his body painfully slide to the hilt due to earlier momentum. The fact that the woman was fast enough to counter a speedy dash in a small room stunned his mind long enough for her to bury him into the door. Recovering slowly, he curved around at the last second during a dash to strike from behind.

Thud…

A last-second shield protected the antagonist from fiery attacks, even granting her another opportunity to impale the hedgehog. Only Sonic's fast eyes prevented an attack that could have easily been fatal, and it was those same eyes that kept the cultist in eyesight while she sought to freeze the Smasher.

"She's not letting up. I need to confuse her so that she can't fight back when I go for the strike." He altered his dashing pattern by performing zigzags of differing shapes and circles in both anticlockwise and clockwise directions. When it seemed that he would execute an attack on his opponent, he would pull back at the last second; only on uncommon occasions did he carry out his assault. Most attacks were blocked, but a successful blow nearly concussed the woman and cursed her with a minor headache.

Whack!

The headache was all Sonic needed to ignite his foe. His attack continued for four more blows, each one intensifying the human inferno by several degrees, before striking a dead end in the form of an electrical punch.

CRACK!

The aftermath of his opponent's mighty blow left him momentarily winded, and even with his absurd speed, he was too slow to avoid grazing a leg when the lieutenant summoned terrible spikes from the ground. Meanwhile, the woman created an icy field around herself to eliminate the cloth-hungry and vicious fire. She also cast a healing spell to repair all damage dealt to her body, something that was not apparent in a common Lord. With her mind cleared of all distractions, she conjured a golden rope of ethereal energy with the power to ensnare victims before swinging it in many erratic patterns. The rate at which she attacked with her new weapon was absurdly high, just enough to keep Sonic on his feet despite his main advantage over her. The leg wound forced the hedgehog to slow down so that his body would not overexert itself, but he was performing surprisingly well against the barrage of attacks from what effectively amounted to a golden snake…

WHACK!

…but a direct strike to the face soured his luck instantaneously. He tripped and rolled across the ground like a speeding blue boulder, crashing into a wall and becoming exposed to a rope that wrapped itself around his left ankle.

"Aw, crap…" His voice barely escaped the woman's ears as she dragged him across the floor and launched him into the ceiling, and it was not long before he found himself hanging on a ledge, suspended meters above the seventh floor. There was just enough space between the ledge and the glass chamber to throw someone into oblivion. He was about to climb up when the floating lieutenant nearly broke the bones in his right hand by stomping on them. A malevolent smile was present on her smooth face, clear as day to the disadvantaged hedgehog.

"Say your farewell before I send you falling to your death…" she hissed to his face.

"Sorry, but I'm not ready to die yet," he replied. Wrapping his free arm around the cultist's right leg, he gathered the strength and speed to soar back to safer ground, knocking his foe down in the process. Already fed up with the battle, he delivered a fierce uppercut to remove her from the scene.

Wham!

"Well, that's a relief." Still wracked by pain, he approached the control console to disable the southern generator for Björnstad's barrier, but his mind was blissfully unaware of the lieutenant floating back to the fighting field. Even worse, she was now invisible without the use of a stealth suit, using the same magic available to Agnetha during an encounter with Mario and his group. Sonic was close to switching off the generator when, out of nowhere, twin ropes with spikes at the end impaled him at the chest.

SPLACK…

"AUGH!" His heart and lungs were nearly sliced open during the attack, and the tips also came dangerously to breaking his spine, which would have left him paralyzed from the ribs down. Even so, the damage was severe enough, as was the pain, to provoke his collapse to the floor. His hands reached out to yank the ropes from his wounds, but the process was not without inducing more pain. Blood sprayed from his mouth whenever he coughed.

"Do you think that I can be defeated so easily?" he could hear the woman snarl with a cold tone, but her physical body was still indistinguishable from the normal environment. Only sound was useful in detecting where she was, and the last comment revealed that she was directly in front of him. Sonic barely had the strength and time to roll away from a stabbing blow, one represented by a closed fist.

"Gotta stay fast and alive here." The hidden lieutenant tried to impale him again, only to become the victim of a counterattack fueled by fire. Immediately after the failed blow, the lucky Homing Attack squarely struck her bosom and face, once again lighting up her robes. Light from the all-consuming fire made it far easier for Sonic to pinpoint his foe, and when the opportunity for a killing blow finally arrived, he desperately took it. Charging his Spin Dash to maximum power, he curved around his foe when she created a shield to block what originally seemed to be a frontal attack and, with a loud yell, bisected her body at the waist.

"Whew, I'm glad that's over." Ignoring his searing pain for a minute, he proceeded to deactivate the generator for the barrier. As the light inside died a slow death, the hemispherical bubble surrounding the city flickered for a few seconds before completely dissipating. This was unavoidable, given the earlier deactivation of the northern generator, and clearly noticed by the airborne Smashers.

"That must be the barrier," Falco announced, dodging a laser shot with graceful finesse. "What's happening to it?"

"It's shutting down," Peach replied. Her bionic eye detected the gradual disappearance of the electromagnetic waves surrounding the city, their distinct color fading away and becoming one with the normal environment again.

"So, you guys wanna go ahead and enter the city?" Samus suggested. "We've already done much to weaken the Lords out here." Indeed, many Lord-operated vehicles were destroyed or badly damaged, giving the Royal Army a clear advantage in the fight.

"We should meet up with the others." Falco, no longer barred from entry into the central district, guided his Arwing to where he believed his co-Smashers were at. Charizard, after launching a small handful of fireballs, followed the pheasant's lead alongside Red, as did the rest of the group. It was at this point that the leader of the cultists finally gave his order to withdraw all troops from the city, leading to all dark vehicles exiting the battlefield via magical portals that led back to the headquarters on the Isola del Inferno. Likewise, the commander of the Royal Army ordered his troops to withdraw if possible.

Back at the southern generator, Sonic was about to leave when the group pursuing him earlier came dangerously close to locating him. He swiftly hid behind a portion of the ledge resting behind the console, remaining silent and still despite the intense agony from his wounds.

"That foul creature deactivated the generator to this place," one of the vampires sighed. "Where could it be hiding now? I suspect that it's still in this room."

"There are traces of its blood here," another remarked. Sonic could then hear sounds of quiet slurping, a disturbing implication of what the robed man—or someone else within group—was performing. His mind was hard at work to focus on hanging from a great height and not on having his nerves rattled by the noise, but one unexpected change almost froze his muscles to the bone.

"I smell fresh blood." The first vampire caught the scent of Sonic's fresher wounds, and when the hedgehog realized that the group was slowly approaching his location, his mind began to silently panic. There were almost no options for escape, and on top of that, the floor beneath him was far enough to prove lethal during a long fall. Sweat mixed with the blood as Sonic tried to remain calm and formulate a method of fleeing without further harm, but his luck was already reduced to zero. Whether he stayed still or tried to escape, he was guaranteed to be spotted. And even if he somehow evaded detection, there was still the problem of exsanguinating before he could reunite with the rest of Luigi's group.

Oh, man… I am so dead. His heart was almost on the brink of stopping when the group was only inches away from him. This was it; he was about to die.

Tap… Tap...

…

…

…

"What do you wish of us, Mastäre?"

…

"We will be leaving soon."

Or was he?

"We must withdraw." After the foe's last words, Sonic could hear a cracking sound and subsequent sparking. There were also sounds of a portal opening and closing, complete with footsteps fading into the distance. Pulling himself up with what little strength he still had, the injured hedgehog came to realize that the group was gone…

Pik…

…and that the control console was damaged.

"Huh, why would they destroy the console to a generator they've been guarding for so long?" he muttered under his breath. With his body losing vital blood, he sprinted his way to the exit. His return trip was marked by a complete absence of vampires; perhaps the Lords decided that conquering Björnstad was a hopeless task, he believed. Either way, he was free to reunite with his partners.

"Gotta go fast, gotta stay alive."

With Luigi's group…

"HRAGH!" Lucario, already having increased its strength with Bulk Up, ripped apart the five hearts of a Jord-Marodör before allowing Snake to detonate the lower jaw with a Nikita missile. Two worms were already removed from the fight before this event; one of them had its hearts frozen by Lucas's PK Freeze and impaled by a larger-than-normal icicle from the Ice Climbers, and the other had been blinded by the Strobulb function of Luigi's flashlight, leaving it vulnerable to overcharged and heart-killing hammer strikes from Dedede. For what their successes were worth, however, the fighters were losing momentum and starting to tire out. Their injuries slowed them down considerably, but their enemies were not letting up.

"For fuck's sake," Wolf growled, "Can't this battle be over already?" Surprisingly enough, twelve Lords in three groups of four showed up to restrain the Jord-Marodörer before leading them a location elsewhere in the city. Magical ropes wrapped around the giant monsters and helped the cultists lift them into the air, complete with superhuman strength on the latter group's part. Two of the Lords surrounded the fighters with an ice dome to prevent further interference. This obstacle did not exist for long, for after the departure of the villainous fanatics, Sonic arrived in time to break it open with a fiery Homing Attack.

CRACK! Sss…

"Thank you," Luigi commented. "But-a where were you?"

"I strolled inside the building and managed to disable the generator inside," the hedgehog explained. "It wasn't easy, man; that area was crawling with a couple o' vampires and a cultist who was harder to defeat than your average Lord. She had a green insignia on her uniform instead of a white one, which probably means she was of higher rank in the Orm's Lords."

"Well, it was quite impressive that you managed to kick her ass," Wolf remarked.

"Banter aside, we should return to the palace immediately," Lucario suggested quietly. "Our vehicle sustained some damage during the initial attack, so we may be forced to return on foot." It was not aware that one of the Rosträdgårdian escorts, the same one who made the earlier report, was already contacting Ingrid for a backup vehicle.

"Your Majesty, we lost our vehicle—and a guard—during our quest. Requesting backup unit."

"I have just sent a pickup squadron from the palace," the queen replied. "Hold your position until it arrives, and if possible, bring the guard's body so that I can store it in the morgue."

"Understood." Staying away from unstable ground, the Smashers and their allies remained in position among the urban sea of chaos before, minutes later, the request vehicle arrived onto the scene.

At the aerial base in Vindfält, minutes earlier…

"Man, this is getting fuckin' boring," Johan, whose forces were pinned down by the Rosträdgårdian defenders, moaned. His lighthearted voice sharply contrasted with the frustrated look on his face. "If they capture me, I hope to avoid ending up in some prison for superfreaks like Deadpool did in that one movie. And can someone from behind the screen write in some assistance for me in this story?" As if by unexpected luck, a portal behind his outmatched group and brought forth a full army of Lords. Vampires, lieutenants, stealth units, and heavy infantry with purple insignias were mixed with standard cultists—and they were all ready to reclaim the base. Most recognizable of these fanatics, however, was Agnetha Lindgren. She was fully healed from her devastating injuries and more twisted of mind than before.

"Yo, Agnetha! Guess the author of the story decided to send you for help. Care to gimme a hand?" Johan maintained a mild smile in the face of a vicious expression from his co-captain.

"Hehe…" replied she. "I will dine on the blood of our enemies, no, MY enemies and watch them scream for mercy as I tear through their fragile bodies. They shall receive no forgiveness and will be forced to bathe in their own blood! I will make them pay for defying the Orm's Lords! I WILL KILL THEM ALL!" After her grand proclamation, she cackled malevolently in the loudest voice possible.

"Uh… Hehehe… Good one." Johan only let out a nervous and weak chuckle, secretly disturbed by the redhead's more blatantly evil persona. She was never this over-the-top with her displays of wickedness, usually demonstrating a calmer air to her presence. "So, how about we start reclaiming-"

SLASH!

"-the base?" Johan could only stare as Agnetha sliced off the cannon of a nearby Rosträdgårdian vehicle with supersonic speed, complete with her subsequently destroying the main body with just her blade. Enemy soldiers tried to eliminate her with their weapons, but to no avail. Her body shrugged off all projectiles, allowing her to safety slaughter any enemy without risking death.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road." The army of cultists charged forward on the goofy captain's command, hoping to reclaim the base.

Palace of the Lords, Isola del Inferno…

"I expect her to awake soon," the faceless leader sighed. While busying himself with a photo of Agnetha as a child, he sat next to the unconscious Lillian on her bed. His mind felt a wave of memories wash over him, pleasant mental aromas that reminded him of a gentler time before a series of tragic events befell the young girl's family. In the picture, a younger Agnetha was wearing a simple dress with a white aura around it. Her hair was much longer and partly restrained by a wreath of flowers wrapped around her head. There was a red rose in her hands, safe from the corruption of its blackened counterpart: a black rose which the innocent child would later become.

"It is amazing how much times can change. The kingdom was once an ally to us, especially to me, but no more. Even with my past efforts, it chose to stab me in the back and bring ruin to the family." Before he could further remind himself of his past relationship with Rosträdgård, his ears captured the sound of the kingdom's crown princess moaning herself awake.

"My beloved queen, you are finally awake. It is a pleasure to witness your gentle face again." Lillian, still in her violet undergarments, was initially confused by the scenery around her. Since her last known memory was of an unnerving nightmare while inside the Smash Mansion, she mistook the voice near her as belonging to a Smasher. Details of the leader's mask, however, frightened her back into reality. She was not expecting to notice his ominous presence, nor was she desiring to be anywhere near him. In the time when she and Stefan were in captivity, he had shown to them the truly horrific workings of the Orm's Lords, most of which the Smashers were not yet aware.

"…!" she gasped. "You! How did you-"

Tap…

"Hush, my lady. You are back on the Isola del Inferno with us, with me. Your defenders were lucky to have shielded you for so long, but they will no longer separate you from the master plan. You have a much greater role in this plan than you think."

Lillian refused to accept the master's claim. "A plan? You tried to kill me with your damned monster after Stefan and I had already escaped with several members of the Black Guard. What purpose could I possibly serve to you?"

"Ah, so you don't know. I will show you in due time. And I do apologize for what happened to you during that fight; I was not intending to kill you, but my pet can be… a bit uncontrollable." He handed the princess's clothing to its rightful owner before exiting the room and locking the door. Lillian herself felt a strong feeling of dread as she tried to figure out what importance she had to the cultists. Was she a power source to a deadly weapon, or did the Lords need her for something even more sinister, perhaps an event of the carnal sort? She knew not the answer, only deep confusion. But one thing was clear; whatever the leader intended to do with her, it would be nothing short of problematic for the besieged kingdom.

Unless the Smashers and Stefan came to her rescue soon, she would find out the master plan in due time. Trapped in the room, she gently redressed her delicate body.

This adventure just keeps getting better and better. Can't wait to see what challenges await us; they'll all fall to the fists of me, the one and only Wario… and the rest of the gang. I bet those cultists must be realizing that we're hitting them hard in their own world. Hope they face a good humiliation soon.

And I still think Link's the guy who stole that item from our vault. I mean, he had access to his section and not Ganondorf, so it makes more sense for that Hylian to have stolen from us…

-Wario

Johan: Okay, there we go. That's about everything patched up in the SDM library. Just need to wait for Patche to show up and-

Whoosh…

Johan: Hey, I'm finished with fixing up the library. Anything else you want me to do?

Patchouli: I need you to replace all damaged books in this room. Search every possible area if you need to.

Johan: Oh, and how's J.C. doin'?

Patchouli: Mistress Remilia is preparing the resurrection with the help of a ghost princess.

Johan: Ah, good to know. I'll bring those books to this place in a flash. *leaves via portal*

Patchouli: Now to help them with the ritual… *leaves library*