Arusu
The sounds of the waterfalls helped Arusu stay focused on his surroundings. There had been rumors of some mysterious presence in Hoenn's Meteor Falls, so Arusu had gone to investigate. Simon Belmont, Ness, Cloud, and Pikachu were right behind him as they walked across a bridge further into the cavern.
"You know it's strange, I feel like I owe a lot to you for some reason, but I can't put my finger on what it is," Ness said. He had picked up his pace to walk right next to Arusu.
"Well he only helped rally a massive army to fight against Galeem and Dharkon," Simon said. His eyes were turned upwards towards the Zubat nesting on the ceiling. Thankfully the ceiling was rather high up.
"No it's not that. I mean I'm grateful for all of that, but this feels like something older," Ness said. He lifted up his cap and put it back on his head. Arusu kept his gaze fixed forwards. He found it embarrassing to be talked about that way.
"I have that feeling towards him too," Cloud said. "It's probably something to do with Reality Bleed. Sometimes I wish reality would bleed less, I don't like having my head screwed with."
"If we don't keep sharp we'll be the ones bleeding," Simon said. Pikachu suddenly stopped in his tracks. Before he could be asked about what was wrong a loud noise burst through the air.
"Up at the waterfall," Simon shouted. Arusu looked up and saw two Mega Salamance charging down the waterfall. Then he realized there was a slight arc in their path, which would send them right at the bridge. He hurried to the other side of the bridge and the others came to the same realization he had. Then in the blink of an eye the bridge was gone. Ness and Simon fell towards the water.
Simon lashed out the Vampire Killer, Cloud grabbed it and pulled him up. With a quick use of PK Thunder Ness fired himself up to solid ground with the others. Pikachu sent out a thunderbolt at one of the Mega Salamances, it missed. Then both of the Mega Salamance made a turn and flew back towards the Smashers. Fire spewed out of their mouths.
"I can take this," Ness said. The other Smashers gathered around him as he used PSI Magnet. The Mega Salamances passed overheard as PSI Magnet absorbed all of their flames. All of the Zubat that had been resting on the ceiling became agitated and flew out of the cave en masse. If it weren't for the sword and shield Arusu was carrying he would have tried to cover his ears with all of the shrieking.
"Doesn't Mega Evolution need a trainer?" Cloud asked.
"Save the 'hows' for later and focus on winning," Simon said.
"Doesn't look like they can stop moving. Any plans? I can keep using PSI Magnet," Ness said. The Mega Salamances moved in a wide arc around the cavern, their speed had ultimately given the Smashers more time to react.
"Ness, is it possible to use PK Thunder to blast off other people, not just yourself?" Arusu asked. Ness nodded.
"Please tell me this won't involve blasting us at the raging dragons," Cloud said.
"If that's what it takes we're doing it, swallow your pride," Simon responded.
"Uh, that isn't the plan," Arusu said. He hoped Simon wasn't too disappointed. The Mega Salamances lowered themselves for a dive at the Smashers. "Pikachu, Volt Tackle the one on the right. Ness to the side and get a PK Thunder ready for the left, hit from behind. Simon, Cloud, we're bait." Sparks of electricity jumped from Pikachu's cheeks as he dashed at the Mega Salamances. Ness ran off and used PK Thunder in a wide arc when the Mega Salamance were midturn.
Pikachu and the right Mega Salamance clashed. Despite the Mega Salamance briefly being pushed back it ultimately won out, charging through the mass of electricity surrounding Pikachu and knocking him into the air. Arusu leapt out of the way of the Mega Salamances, Simon and Cloud quickly followed. The Mega Salamance on the Smasher's left got hit with a PK Thunder from behind. Its speed increased even further. Too fast for the Mega Salamance to control. It crashed right into the wall of the cavern, forming a hole for it to lay unconscious in. It reverted back to its regular form.
Simon used the Vampire Killer to grab Pikachu by the tail and bring him back down. The remaining Mega Salamance looked like it was preparing for another charge. Then a portal opened in front of it, closing right as the Mega Salamance passed through it. "Well this isn't suspicious at all," Cloud said. Then the sound of a portal opening and something heavy landing came from behind the Smashers, followed by the unmistakable roar of a Rathalos. "Oh come on."
The Smashers turned around and prepared for a fight. There was somebody standing next to the Rathalos. A blue skinned creature with a purple robe and horn like hair. Arusu could tell that monster was from his world, though he had never seen that particular monster before. "So this is the legendary Erdrick," the monster said. Arusu hated that title. Part of the reason he had gone with the Smashers was to be with people who wouldn't call him that. Whoever this person was, they were already off to a bad start.
"And who are you?" Simon asked.
"I am the king of kings, the master of masters, the Dragonlord. My new friend here has the power to traverse worlds on his own. I see humans and their insistence on building remains a constant across worlds, so I will wipe out even their ability to build from this world. Just as I did in my own world after Erdrick's descendant aligned himself with me." Arusu felt himself freeze at that last sentence. His descendant had allied with somebody like that? Could it have been the weight of Erdrick's legacy that led to such a foolish decision? That would ultimately make the whole thing Arusu's fault for quietly accepting the title and not rejecting it outright like he had wanted to. He knew he was leaping to assumptions, but he couldn't shake the thought.
"He's just trying to mess with you Arusu, don't let this blue wannabe in your head. All you have to do is tell these people to shut up and tune them out," Cloud said.
"What a closed mind you have. Perhaps Erdrick feels an interest in joining his descendant?"
"Well where is this descendant? If he was really on your side you would have brought him here. You already know he's Erdrick despite all of us calling him Arusu, because that's what he wants to be called, so you must have come here for him," Ness said. Arusu wanted to apologize for not being worth all the supportive words. For a moment he had wondered what accepting the Dragonlord's offer would lead to.
"I just did what I had to do. I'm no legendary hero. And I won't side with a monster who loathes creation. Prepare to fight," Arusu said.
"I'm not here today to fight. I already possess what I need from this encounter. Rathalos, back to the World Between Worlds for us," the Dragonlord said. Pikachu fired a thunderbolt, but Rathalos had already opened a portal and charged through it. Arusu took off running towards the portal, it closed right as the Dragonlord stepped through it. Arusu stopped and cursed himself for not thinking to use a projectile.
"I have a strange feeling I fought against this Dragonlord before. I'll have to see if the name rings a bell for Mega Man or Pit," Simon said.
"I'm sorry. I should have used one of my spells to catch them. And my plan with Pikachu just got him hurt," Arusu said.
"Don't beat yourself up over this. You came up with an actual plan, I just play everything by ear," Simon said. He put his hand on Arusu's shoulder.
"I think you're pretty cool too," Ness added. Arusu gave his thanks and turned his gaze to the broken bridge. He would have to help out with the rebuilding to make up for not protecting it.
"Let's mosey over to Master Hand and see if he knows anything useful," Cloud said. He activated the teleporter recall. With a flash the Smashers were gone from the Meteor Falls.
Solo
It was another sunny day on Wuhu Island. Solo was practicing on top of Talon Rock. He swung at the training dummy and landed his usual combo, then finished it with a sizzle. The training dummy burnt to ashes. Solo had rented the training dummy, he went pale as he remembered the fee for destroying it. That made the third in a row. He had enough money leftover from his previous mercenary jobs for it to not be too much of an issue, but it was still a fee he could have avoided.
With a sigh Solo turned around and walked past the forest monument towards New Garfont Village. The store that gave out training dummy rentals was on the outskirts so it was a short walk. Solo walked in, put down the money owed for the fee, and walked back out without a comment. He figured it would probably be better for everybody if he found another way to get practice in. The Garfont Mercenaries needed those training dummies more than him anyway. Despite the offer he had gotten from Rex, Solo had no intent on joining the Garfont Mercenaries.
Apparently the old Garfont Village had been forced to relocate from its home world of Alrest due to some rather significant geography changes, Master Hand had used his powers to teleport all of the buildings right onto Wuhu Island. It was a fine place, but Solo didn't plan on staying for much longer. After everything with Aamon was over and done Solo had never been able to stay in one place. Nothing could replace his destroyed hometown. Just because Eliza came back didn't mean the way that they lived did. And the other chosen all had lives of their own they had to get back to. Sometimes Solo regretted not staying in Zenithia, then he remembered who exactly had killed his father. He had secretly been glad when he had gotten drawn into the war against Galeem and Dharkon, it had given him a purpose again. And now he was once more a drifter with no reason to keep going.
"Hey, Solo right?" Solo had been so distracted that he hadn't even noticed a young brown haired girl approach him. Her outfit looked exactly like Robin's.
"Who are you?" Solo asked.
"My name is Morgan, my dad is one of the Smashers. I'm looking for someone to help me with both magic and sword stuff, and you can do both at the same time. I'm a terrible multi tasker, can you show me your secret?" She smiled, it was a bit too wide.
"You're Robin's daughter aren't you, go ask him instead of me."
"Oh, uh, I want to surprise him. Yeah that's it, mom and dad would be so proud if out of nowhere I just whip up some magic into sword combo. So come on, you don't want to deprive a dutiful daughter of a chance to impress her parents do you?" Morgan was so obviously lying it almost made Solo feel embarrassed.
"Well whatever the real reason is, if you were trying to murder somebody you would have done a decent job lying. Not interested either way," Solo said. He turned and walked away. Morgan grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
"Look this is really important. It's about way more than just me or even just my world. I can't afford to say why though, if I do things might get really screwed up. But I was too stupid to win the first time, so I know I need help. If things line up the way they look like they do, I need to get some revenge." That last word caught Solo's attention. He remembered when all he had was vague knowledge of some prophecy, and knowledge that his mere existence had gotten everyone he knew killed. The sense of isolation he felt back then was too much. He was sure it wasn't the same for Morgan, but something about ignoring her no longer felt right.
"I want an explanation at some point, but I'm along for the ride now. Whatever this is I want in on fighting it," Solo said.
"Since you're already on board with the real mission there's something I want to check out. Do you have any time for some ruin exploring?" Morgan asked. She pulled Solo along with her before he could give an answer one way or the other.
"You know I can just use zoom to get us over to the ruins faster, right?" Solo asked.
"Oh really. Great, use that then," Morgan said. Solo sighed.
"Lesson one, make sure you know what your allies can do. Now keep holding on." Solo closed his eyes and cast the spell. They took off into the air. It took only a few seconds for them to touch down at the ruins on the other side of the island. There had been no time to even slightly make out what they had gone over. "See this is way more efficient." Solo successfully disguised his desire to throw up. Zoom was too convenient to not use, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
The spell had put Morgan and Solo at the top of a staircase leading to an underground door. Grey stone buildings surrounded them. They were strangely empty, and Solo had overheard a few rants about how difficult it was to figure out what purpose the ruins had even served. Morgan started walking down the staircase. "Come on, I bet there's some secret behind the door. They only dug it out last night," Morgan said.
"I was unaware you held an interest in archeology Solo." Solo turned around. Akasha, Leaf, and Ulti had just walked out of one of the buildings in Solo's direction.
"Morgan dragged me here, she wanted to explore it but she was scared about doing it alone," Solo said. Morgan frowned, though for some reason it looked like it was directed at Akasha rather than Solo.
"Yeah these ruins can be kind of freaky. Never know when some sort of evil monster might pop up," Morgan said.
"Well we were about to see what was behind that door too, so let's all go together," Leaf said.
"Sure," Solo said. He walked ahead of the group and pushed open the door. The sight on the other side was unlike the rest of the ruins. The walls were made of steel, there were black lines in the center of the walls that lit up with strange blue characters, like neon signs. Functionally it was just a hallway that had a sharp right turn at the end.
"How curious, this architecture is identical to what was once on the Isle of the Ancients," Akasha said.
"Wait, really? We should tell R.O.B then. It's a good thing you were there during the Subspace Incident, I heard about it but I wouldn't have made the connection on my own," Leaf said. She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.
"That's why you should endeavor to read more. There is much to be ascertained from written records," Akasha said.
"Well you know how I am, I prefer hands on experience and finding things out for myself," Leaf said. She took a few pictures of the ruins. Ulti ran ahead of the group and turned around the corner, vanishing from sight. Leaf was about to chase him but Akasha held out her hand.
"He can safeguard himself, we should take our time and not fall prey to enervation," Akasha said. The relatively fast walk to catch up to Ulti was strangely uneventful. When they turned the corner they walked past what Akasha said was an elevator and opened another door.
The next room was more in line with the rest of the ruins, the walls had gone from steel to stone. Solo had many questions for whatever architect had designed that place. The room was a fairly small rectangle with just a small altar at the end opposite the door, Ulti was standing on it and looking up at a picture engraved into the wall. Solo rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining the engraving or vastly misinterpreting what it depicted.
"Hey, does that look pretty much exactly like Dharkon to any of you guys too," Morgan said.
"The representation is without flaw. How fascinating," Akasha said. Leaf walked up to Ulti. It was hard to read the body language of a plant, but Solo got the feeling Ulti had some interest in the drawing. But he had apparently been created after Dharkon was already destroyed. Leaf tapped Ulti on the head, Ulti jumped ahead in surprise. Then he walked back to Leaf and brushed his head against her leg.
"He's kind of like a dog," Solo said. Akasha walked up to the engraving and traced the characters written under it with her finger.
"I know of this language. It appears Dharkon was held in regard of some height by whoever made this. 'Consumer of Worlds' is one translation of the title given to it here," Akasha said.
"And what are some of the other translations?" Leaf asked. She tapped the brim of her hat.
"The word used for worlds could also be translated as timelines. Quantum Consumer, Timeline Assimilator, those would also be veracious interpretations of varying flavor. According to this Dharkon acted against the erasure of other worlds, by destroying a world Dharkon became one with that world and it lived on past its appointed final hour. So says these ruins," Akasha explained.
"How does destroying a world let it live on? That makes no sense," Solo said.
"From Dharkon's perspective it may have not been destruction at all. A god does not share the perspective of its worshippers," Akasha said.
"I've seen worse choices of god to worship, Anyway how about we go tell everyone else and get the other experts before exploring the rest of the place?" Morgan asked. She tugged on Solo's shirt.
"Sure. Akasha and I will stay here. Ulti seems to like it here too," Leaf said. Solo went with Morgan out of the room, he had gotten the hint. Once they were at the staircase leading aboveground Morgan turned to face Solo.
"Hey can we take a little detour? There's somebody I have to meet, and you can't tell anyone else about them, okay? That's why I dragged you with me," Morgan said. The serious look in her eyes had returned.
"I'm not that good with secrets, you go by yourself. Besides there's something I want to settle in New Garfont," Solo said.
"What's that?"
"Rex gave me an offer to join the Garfont Mercenaries. I'm going to take him up on it now. After what we saw in there I have a feeling there's some loose ends we all need to take care of," Solo said. He hadn't even realized that was his plan until he opened his mouth. There was a chance he wouldn't even need to fight for a while, but investigating the ruins was still a group effort. Between Morgan's mission and the ruins he wouldn't have to think about the past for a while.
Eight
Joker's Kitchen somehow already felt like it had been around for a while, despite opening just a few days ago. Eight sized up the menu as he looked at his options. He went for the coffee and curry, word was already getting out that those two were the best items, not that the others were bad. Unfortunately, there was no cheese. The cashier was named Zavok according to his nametag, his body was mostly red but his horned head and legs were black. Apparently he was something known as a Zeti, not that Eight had any idea what a Zeti was. Eight did know that Master Hand had made some kind of deal to prevent someone named Zavok from being a problem, and had made similar deals for quite a few troublemakers.
After giving his order Eight went to the right side of the store and grabbed one of the tables by the window. He had been able to come at a relatively slow hour so it wasn't too crowded. There was a girl named Kachi sitting at one of the other window side tables, she and Eight had talked a bit in line so Eight knew she was waiting for her boyfriend. For a second Eight could have sworn he saw a black butterfly fluttering above her. Towards the back of the cafe Krystal, Fay, and Miyu were having a discussion about Starfox related issues. Wolf and Isabelle were seated next to each other at the counter. Rumor was that Wolf worked as Nook Inc's debt collector, but Eight doubted those rumors since Nook Inc rarely had deadlines for debts. Their conversation looked too animated to be about financial issues in Eight's opinion.
Corrin walked over with Eight's coffee and curry. "Nice to see a prince who isn't afraid to do some work," Eight said.
"Oh this is nothing. Akira, Game & Watch, and the others are the ones doing the real work in the actual kitchen. I wanted to help out, but my cooking still needs some work," Corrin said.
"You're still putting in work of your own to keep this place running. I don't like people who don't put in any effort and still expect results. And I should let you get back to work now."
"I'm not needed at the moment so I can talk for a bit longer. Doing work like this has made me appreciate the servants I grew up around more. I never took them for granted, I think, but now I feel like I can understand what they did for me better," Corrin said.
"I get what you're saying. Oh also sorry if this is kind of rude, but you're part dragon right? I have some dragon blood of my own, just a fourth though," Eight said.
"My family is descended from dragons. Though my twin and I seem to be the only ones who can actually transform. I don't know of anyone else from my world who can transform into a dragon. Which is kind of strange now that I think about it. And nobody else in the family seems to have pointed ears." Corrin touched the pointed ends of his ears.
"Yeah I was just about to say something about that doesn't seem to add up."
"Maybe Gunther knows something. He usually works here but he got the day off because he wanted to spy on Ryu and Kamui's date, not that either of them know they're dating," Corrin said. Eight briefly debated if it was worth asking the obvious question, before deciding to go for it.
"How do you date without knowing it?" Eight asked.
"I don't know either. But Ryu and Kamui have been spending a ton of time together, it started with training but they're going to see a martial arts movie together. I really hope we don't have any troublesome customers today, Akira and I had no idea how to handle Waluigi until Gunther just threw him out. We're still not sure what exactly Waluigi was here for," Corrin said. He looked around to check that everybody who was seated had everything they ordered.
"So that's who got kicked out, I heard the rumors about some troublemaker getting the boot. Maybe he was trying to apply for a job here since his entire existence is a joke?" Eight's smirk faded when he saw that Corrin didn't get it. Then Corrin laughed. For Eight's jokes that was a pretty short amount of time to get it. It had once taken his friends an entire hour to get one of his jokes.
"I get it now, it's because of the cafe name. And I'm about to be needed so I'll speak with you later." Corrin took his leave and hurried back into the kitchen, presumably to grab something that needed serving. Eight took his time with the coffee and curry. He observed the other patrons now that he wasn't talking to anyone. Kachi's boyfriend had arrived while the trio of Krystal, Fay, and Miyu looked like they were just about ready to leave. A new customer walked in. Eight had never seen him before, but he looked like one of the monsters from his world. His footwear on the other hand seemed to have been bought in Smashopolis. The shoes were purple with a large number of small holes in them, Eight felt fairly confident they were called crocs.
"Hey my destroying days are behind me, quit looking at me like that," the monster said.
"Sorry, I'm just, uh, intrigued by your choice of shoes," Eight said. Saying what he really thought about those crocs would probably just make trouble for the cafe staff.
"These are just perfect. At least this is one upside of having lost that bet," the monster said.
"What kind of bet was that?" Eight asked.
"It's a long story where I had to give up destruction and admit that building is better." Eight did not know how to respond to that. He was clearly missing a lot of context and he wasn't sure he wanted to ask for the context. Smashopolis was a neutral ground but that didn't mean he felt comfortable around obvious villains, former or otherwise.
"Hargon get over here and put down your order already or I will throw the cash register at you," Zavok called from the counter. The monster hurried over to give his order. Corrin gave Zavok a disapproving look as he cleaned up the table the women of Star Fox had used.
"That Hargon guy totally has a past as some kind of villain," Munchie said from Eight's pocket. Eight looked around to make sure nobody else had heard that comment.
"Grandpa please, not when he's right there," Eight pleaded. Even after all of the revelations about Eight's heritage it was sometimes hard for him to remember that Munchie could talk, since his grandfather rarely talked in that form. Granted having to explain why his grandfather was shape shifted as a mouse every time he met someone new would get old fast. "Maybe we should see if all of this world crossing stuff will make the King of Dragovians let you stay in your other forms?"
"I doubt it. Now let's go get some cheese." Eight sighed. He left a tip on the table and walked out of the door. He had every intent of returning the next day.
Eleven
Eleven glanced at the weapons on the wall as he ate. Link had explained earlier that the equipment on display had belonged to some friends of his. Staring at their weapons made Eleven wonder what they were like. If they had fought alongside Link and Zelda they had to have been skilled. But nobody needed to ask why their weapons were in Link's home. Eleven knew what it was like to lose a close companion. He wasn't sure if he could handle not being able to do anything about it.
"I would have never thought of shield surfing back in my own world. That was more fun than I expected," Chrom said. He finished off his serving.
"Even the part where your shield broke and you fell on your face?" Richter asked. Chrom groaned.
"I've lived through much worse. I couldn't just use the Fire Emblem for something like this, or any other shield that could be useful in combat," Chrom said. Eleven and Link both exchanged a look. Neither of them were prone to talking, so they had been reliant on Chrom and Richter for most of the conversation.
"What's the point of family heirlooms if you don't use them? I use the Vampire Killer for all sorts of things," Richter said.
"After all of the fighting over the Fire Emblem I'd rather not risk breaking it like the thousands of other shields I've broken," Chrom said.
"I think important things should be handled carefully," Link said. His voice was so quiet Eleven had to strain to hear him. Eleven had often received the same complaint. In his opinion other people were just too loud, and talked too much. He hoped he didn't get dragged into the argument. Picking sides always made him anxious, someone would always get angry at him.
"Guess I'm not winning this one," Richter said. The sound of the alarm bell ringing burst through the walls. It was accompanied by a few screams. Without a word all four of the Smashers grabbed their weapons and rushed outside. They crossed the bridge connecting Link's house to the rest of the village and ran down the hill towards the front gate.
Hateno Village had been slowly building up its fortifications since Zelda's return, but the intruder had sliced the gate apart like it was an old rotted door. The intruder in question was covered in azure armor and had a large sword in their left hand. There was a large eyeball in the middle of the sword, and part of it appeared to be made of flesh. A grotesque three fingered claw served as the right hand and gripped a large shield. The shield had the same mixture of flesh and metal that the sword had. Red feathers decorated the shoulder pads of the armor. Richter threw his cross and charged at the demonic knight.
"Nightmare? How do I know that name?" Link asked.
"Must be reality bleed. I wish I could get the kind where I know people's names, not the kind where I have dreams about my best friend marrying my daughter," Chrom said. Nightmare blocked Richter's attacks with his shield. Chrom took advantage of the opening and leapt at Nightmare. The Exalted Falchion failed to pierce the armor. Link pulled out his bow. He shot a few arrows that bounced off the armor.
Eleven charged up a kafrizz. He launched the fireball at Nightmare. It was blocked by the shield. Link circled around and slashed at Nightmare from behind with the Master Sword. Nightmare let out a pained howl. He turned around and knocked Link away with the shield. Then he swung his sword at Chrom. Chrom blocked and countered the hit. The counterattack failed to pierce the armor, but the holy water Richter threw seemed to be having some effect.
An idea came to Eleven. He put his shield on his back. With a shout he charged at Nightmare and swung at Nightmare's shield. It was blocked, just as Eleven planned. With his free hand Eleven grabbed the shield and used kaswoosh. He went soaring up into the air, pulling Nightmare's shield with him. One of his fingers stung due to a spike on the handle. Eleven put Nightmare's shield under his feet as he fell back to the ground.
"What a childish imitator of a hero," a voice rung out. Eleven clutched his head. The voice sounded like Link's. "Going to copy that technique I got from one of my friends like it was meant for just anybody, worthless copycat. Not all of us can just turn back the clock after our friends die. Everything I knew was destroyed but I just carried on, what makes you think your loss was anything special let alone worth nearly ruining the world for."
"You know when my daughter turned back time it was because the world had ended, not because she didn't get the exact kind of victory she wanted with grand titles as a reward. You can't run away from loss forever, only a selfish idiot like you would turn back time just because you won but not in the exact way you wanted to. Worthless Darkspawn. The title of Erdrick is wasted on you."
"Shut up shut up shut up," Eleven shouted as he slashed empty air. What followed afterwards was a complete haze. There were voices that wouldn't be quiet and Eleven needed them to stop talking at any cost. The word Darkspawn was repeated so many times it lost any real meaning, becoming a repeating series of nonsensical sounds that wouldn't cease. And then Eleven was on the ground being held by Richter. He looked around, Link and Chrom were still fighting Nightmare. A new ally had arrived to help them, a blonde haired man with a crystalline two handed sword. And Nightmare had his shield back.
"Are you okay?" Richter asked.
"What happened?"
"Nightmare put some kind of curse on you that made you go berserk, looks like a scratch is all he needs to do this to people. Good thing I made sure to pick up some anti curse and possession spells," Richter said. Nightmare let out a pulse of dark energy. Link, Chrom, and the stranger with the crystalline sword were all pushed away by the pulse. Nightmare held his sword in front of him and pointed it towards the sky. There was a glowing purple shard embedded in the back of his left gauntlet. A portal appeared behind Nightmare, he turned and walked through it. Eleven cursed his timing, if he had gotten at least one more hit in that could have somewhat made up for the trouble he caused with his poorly thought out plan.
"Are you okay Eleven?" Chrom asked. He, Link, and the stranger walked over to where Eleven and Richter were. The three of them sheathed their respective swords. Eleven nodded and pushed himself up from the ground. Richter rose up with him. Chrom turned to the stranger. "Thank you for your help. My name is Chrom, what's yours?"
"Siegfried. I'm sorry for this, Nightmare is my responsibility," the stranger said. Now that Eleven had a closer look at Siegfried he noticed a scar across his right eye. And there was a strange look in both of his eyes, Eleven had seen a similar look in Richter and Peach before.
"How so?" Chrom asked.
"I used to be him. That sword he uses is called Soul Edge, it takes control of whoever uses it. Whoever Nightmare really is isn't doing this of their own will, Soul Edge is just using them as a puppet. This sword I hold, Soul Calibur, is the only thing that can destroy Soul Edge. In order to free Soul Calibur I had to submit myself to Soul Edge, but somebody stole that cursed sword and now someone else is under its thrall," Siegfried said.
"You didn't even see the person who stole it?" Richter asked.
"No, at the time Soul Edge had complete control of my body. I had to focus all of my will into protecting Soul Calibur in the hope that someone would free both of us. By the time I regained consciousness the thief was already gone. And now I'm at a loss for what to do, I don't know where that portal leads," Siegfried said.
"That thing Nightmare used is called an otherworld fragment. Those things lead into the space between worlds, he could be anywhere now. Why don't you come with us? We know people who can figure out just where that portal led to. It will take some time but it's better than wandering aimlessly," Chrom said.
"I don't have any other choice. But please, Soul Edge is my responsibility, let me handle confronting it," Siegfried said. He looked down at Soul Calibur.
"Just because it's personal doesn't mean you should go about this alone. If Nightmare has some way to travel between worlds he's going to become a problem for all of us," Richter said. Link nodded in agreement.
"It's only because of me that Soul Edge became such a problem." Siegfried held his left hand with his right hand. It almost looked like he was trying to crush it.
"After what Soul Edge did to me I need to fight it again too," Eleven said.
"What it made you do was nothing. I was never a great hero like you. I could see the fight as I was hurrying to lend my aid, what you did with the shield took more courage than I ever had. I did things with Soul Edge that can never be undone, but I can at least save whoever it's currently controlling," Siegfried said.
"Don't worry, we'll save them. Together," Chrom said.
"Eleven and I will repair the gate. Go without us," Link said.
"See you guys later, we'll let you know when we find Nightmare," Richter said. He made a peace sign as the recall activated and he vanished. Siegfried and Chrom disappeared as well. Eleven started walking towards the gate. He figured Link had singled him out for the screw up during the fight. Link grabbed Eleven's hand and stopped him. Link looked Eleven in the eyes.
"You saved me in Dharkon's world. You're not weak. You're strong." Eleven didn't know what to say in response. He found himself smiling for some reason, and that seemed to be enough for Link. And Link's words were enough for him.
A/N: Writing all four heroes was a challenge but at least it made this chapter stand out. The only Dragon Quests I've played so far are Builders, Builders 2, and IX so I had to rely on the Dragon Quest wikis quite a bit for this. Hopefully I didn't get anything too wrong. The Rathalos that appears in Arusu's section is actually from the collaboration event between Dragalia Lost and Monster Hunter. Dragalia Lost is also the origin of the otherworld fragments, Chrom's guest appearance there was very conveniently timed for this fic. Garfont Village is from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, though obviously it is now relocated from where it was during the game. Feel free to make guesses about the identity of the new Nightmare.
Also to whoever put this on the recommended fics list on TvTropes, thank you so much. You made my entire week. It has been one of my ambitions to get recced on TvTropes and have a Tropes page for my fic, but I never thought either one of those would actually happen.
If you want a place to chat with other people who like and make Smash Bros fanfiction check out Super Smash Prose, a cool discord server. The join code is gDK48ua.