"Why couldn't I have claws or a bow or something?" Pit complained as he continued walking, sweat beading on his forehead while the sun's rays beat down on him. His staff certainly was powerful, and he was grateful for that. But with its strength and long range came a weight that slowed him down considerably, and it was all he could do to brace the weapon over his shoulders to support it better and continue on.

He'd been walking through the grassy fields for several hours now, the only relief coming from having to wade through a shallow river, and that was close to an hour previous. What didn't help him, however, was the beginning of the foothills at the base of the mountain he was heading toward. His legs were screaming as he trekked up the inclines that steadily got steeper as he went, and he finally surrendered and sat down to rest in the shade of a welcome tree.

"Please tell me I'm almost there," he panted.

"At least you're not complaining nearly as much as you did before you fought the Chariot Master," Viridi teased. "But YES, you're almost there. And you'd better be ready to fight once you get there! I doubt getting to the element will be easy."

"Of course not," he gasped. "Man... at least Lady Palutena would leave snacks for me. I'm starving."

"Well, I'm not Palutena!" the goddess of Nature snapped. "So get over yourself, suck it up, and get moving!"

"Okay, okay!" He sprung himself back to his feet and continued on toward the mountain, towing his weapon along with him. He stumbled down a slope and found himself facing a large entrance that yawned at him, and he frowned as he tried to peer into the darkness. Around the entrance itself were carvings in the mountain itself depicting forms he didn't recognize, but their strength was easily seen even in their soft features. "Uh, I'm guessing this is it."

"No, this is a dairy farm that produces magic milk," Viridi replied sarcastically. "Get going!"

"Can you go five minutes without some snarky comment?" the angel inquired somewhat sharply, but wasn't really expecting an answer. He shook his head and readied his weapon, then slid down the slope into the sanctum.

Despite the darkness of the entrance, it was quite warm and well-lit inside, and all of the earthen structures were warm browns, cool grays, and gold and amber made them sparkle. Pit whistled, taken off guard by the beauty of the carvings in the rock itself. Any good feeling it gave him, however, faded as he noticed the many different passages, locks, and mechanisms that seemed to point toward a platform quite a way above his head.

"If I could fly, this would be a lot easier," he mumbled. But, of course, he couldn't, and he sighed as he started for the passage nearest him. He squeezed himself between two boulders, thankful he wasn't bringing a club or arm with him, and continued down the rock path until he came to a room with a narrow rock bridge from one side to the other, a seemingly bottomless pit on either side of it. "Viridi?"
"Yes?"
"Why does this place keep taunting me?" he complained, stretching his wings for a moment.

"Not my fault you can't fly!" she replied lightly. "Seriously, though, why can't you?"

"Butt out!" he snapped, gritting his teeth.

"Okay, okay! Sorry! Sheesh." He rolled his eyes and carefully stepped forward, stepping one foot in front of the other. Unfortunately, he heard a crack as soon as he placed his weight on the bridge itself, and panic shot through him.

"Maybe you should lose some weight," Viridi remarked.

"Har har," he sighed and took another step forward, and the rock continued to crack under him. "Agh!" He tore forward, barely keeping his balance as the bridge crumbled under his weight. "No, no, no!" he cried out, lashing out one hand that, thankfully, managed to catch the cliff on the other side. He swallowed, his eyes wide and blank with fear, as he hung there, his heart hammering in his chest, his fingers digging into the dirt as he clung to it for dear life. "O-Okay, I can do this..." With a heave, he threw his staff onto the cliff and pulled himself up, his feet scraping against the rock until he got himself back to solid ground.

After a few deep breaths to assure he was still alive, he picked up his weapon and slowly made his way down the next passage. It emerged into a large, spiraling staircase heading up, and he frowned as he saw gaps between them. Grumbling about his inability to fly, he started up the stairs with his staff dragging at his side.

"Watch out, Pit!" Viridi warned.

"Huh? Whoa!" He ducked as a shot of energy flew over his head, and he looked further up the stairs to find some sort of shadowy creature with four limbs and glowing blank eyes that shifted between almost every color imaginable. It opened what appeared to be a mouth, its lips, or whatever they were, dripping with dark purple ooze. Again, it fired a bright shot of energy, and the angel rolled forward to evade it. Without asking questions, he retaliated with his staff, but frowned as it remained standing. Or, rather, standing as much as it could while it was hunched over. Pit dodged another shot from it and answered with one of his own, rolling to the side as he did so, and this one managed to dispatch it.

"What was that thing?" he wondered as it evaporated into a substance like the one that had shrouded Skyworld before disappearing entirely.

"I wish I knew," Viridi replied. "But whatever it is, it doesn't like you, and it probably has friends. Hurry up, Pit, or they may get to the element before you do!"

"But what would they want with it?" he asked, puzzled, as he continued up the stairs and leapt over the gaps.

"I told you earlier: Get the elements, you get the world. That thing was probably connected to the thing that attacked Skyworld."

"Oh. I knew that."

"Uh huh." He continued on up, only to be ambushed by another two of the creatures. He dodged their fire and attacked with his own, thankful that his weapon did have the range it had. He never would have been able to defeat them with claws or even a blade.

"I'll grant they seem a lot tougher than the Underworld baddies," Viridi remarked as he continued up and reached another passage. "Good thing that staff of yours is so strong."

"I wish it was a little lighter, though," he said dully as he switched out which arm was carrying it and hoped he wouldn't run into an ambush. A few moments later, he found himself back in the central chamber where he had come in, the platform above still way too high for him to reach on his own. Even further above it was a metal sheet hanging from the ceiling, and his eyes followed its ropes and chains to a mechanism on another landing.

"Hmph." He aimed his weapon and fired at the mechanism, but it had no effect.

"You know, sometimes shooting blindly ISN'T the best idea," Viridi said flatly, and he sighed.

"I figured it wouldn't hurt!" he snapped back, his patience with the goddess quickly running out as he made his way around a narrow cliff and to another corridor. "Hey, it didn't break, right?"

"Whatever. Just keep going." He did, but had little desire to follow her orders. The path he found himself on was a steep incline, and it took practically crawling on his hands and knees with his feet braced against the surface to scale it- not an easy task while he was carrying his weapon.

"Oh, great," he sighed as he came to the next room, and he could barely see the rock beneath his feet among all the strange monsters waiting for him. Red, pink, purple, green, blue, yellow, and eyes of almost every other conceivable color watched him, disorienting him. "Okay, come on, slimeballs! Show me what you've got!" None of them attacked, but instead somehow melted together to take on a more solid form resembling a human-like creature with abnormally long limbs and claws nearly as long as one sword of Palutena's Bow. As if to taunt him, it sprouted dripping, ghastly wings that almost sickened him to look at.

"The Underworld Army can't do that," he blurted, gripping his staff. This new creature held itself straight and proud, not unbalanced and hunched over like the things that had created it. And before he could even think about processing it, one of its arms whipped out and struck him across the chest and knocked his breath away as he fell back. He grunted as the arm-turned-whip wrapped itself around his ankle and wasted no time in throwing him against the rock wall, and he lost the grip on his weapon as he fell to the floor, stunned and disoriented as he fought against blacking out.

"Jeez, Pit, are you okay?!" Viridi demanded, sounding genuinely distraught at seeing him like that.

"...Ow..." he groaned and rolled over, heaving himself back up. Almost immediately, however, it grabbed him around the waist and pain wracked his body once it slammed against the rock again. It didn't give him any reprieve this time as it again grabbed his ankle and hoisted him into the air, and he found himself hanging upside down as his laurel crown clattered to the floor and his dizzied gaze met the monster's. "Y-you don't fight fair," he gasped. The monster opened its mouth, dripping like the minions that had created it, and it let out a gargled screech as if to answer him before throwing him to the ground again.

"I-I don't know..." he mumbled as his mind tried to force his body back up. "If I'm gonna get out of this one..."

"You can and you will!" Viridi practically yelled. "Get up! Fight back! Get your weapon and kill that thing!"

"Just... give me..." One minute... he finished mentally once he decided that he simply didn't have the energy to give the words voice. He felt immobilized, and panicked as the monster grabbed him again, this time around his leg, and hoisted him back into the air.

"Pit!" Viridi cried out, and he shook his head as he again found the monster staring at him once he managed to open his eyes. And, somehow, an idea managed to make it through the haze his mind had been cast into. Though his body protested against the movement, he curled himself up and grabbed his opponent's arm just as it tried to throw him again. His legs were thrust out, but he held on, and finally managed to drop back to his feet. The monster screeched again, angered at being outwitted, and attempted to catch him again, but he dashed to the side- through the howls of pain his limbs used to protest- until he picked up his weapon and fired as soon as he had it aimed in the creature's direction. The impact didn't last long, but it was enough, and he rushed forward as another idea formulated itself in his head.

He dodged its arm once again, this time as it tried to claw at him, and he fired as he ran and rolled to the side. As soon as his feet reached the ground again, he pushed himself forward and drove the front end of his staff right into the monster's slimy form. With a deep breath, he released one final charged shot, and the monster gurgled for a moment before exploding, sending dark goop flying in all directions. Pit remained standing in a defensive position, his staff at the ready, until all of it had evaporated before he collapsed to the ground, panting.

"That was... hard..." he gasped, resting his head back as he tried to mentally assess the damage his body had sustained.
"But you're alive," Viridi pointed out. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Just... give me a moment." She said nothing else as he continued to lie there, spread out across the rock with his staff still gripped tight in his hand. He remained that way for quite some time as he grappled with his injuries before he finally managed to heave himself to his feet.

"Better?" the goddess wondered, sounding truly concerned.

"I think so," he agreed. "Though I could really use a Hot Spring right about now."

"Keep going and I think you'll find one," she replied, bringing a weak smile to his face.

"Then I've got no time to lose, huh?" He half walked, half limped forward and scooped his laurel crown off the ground, placing it among his messy brown locks before he headed for the next passage.