Chapter 38
You see, the enemy already succeeded in freeing its spirit…
Kitty, still in his half-beast form, crashed back down outside of the castle, just in front of the moat. As mentioned in the previous chapter, he was burned from head to toe and covered in wounds to the point that he looked nothing like how he originally did.
Nobody cares about him anyway.
-
"I'll try to heal you the best I can using my PSI!" Lucas said, and he quickly used using healing spells to heal CF, though despite this, the captain wasn't fully healed as there were still visible wounds on him.
He sat back up however and said, "Thanks, Lucas. I feel better than before already, just enough to move around again."
"Sorry, if I was more skilled in PSI, I might be able to fully recover you…"
"Don't blame yourself; you've done your best," G&W said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Okay, now that's everything's deal with here," Red said, looking back at the destroyed robots as well as the three knocked out Mario villains. "What do we do?"
"I wonder where Mario and his group are though," Pikachu said. "There's been no contact from them at all. Oh, and also Marth's…"
"What's been happening here?" asked the voice of Marth as he came into the scene with his group.
"Perfect timing!" Pichu said. "We were just wondering where you went."
"Okay, that would make all of us except for Mario's group, and also Roy," CF said.
"If you need to contact Negi sensei," Setsuna said, taking out her Pactio card. "I can use this to speak with him."
"How?" Yoshi asked curiously.
-
Meanwhile, Roy and the others were on their way descending the spiraling staircase in hope of meeting with the others. "That was quite a show Falcon gave us," Roy said. "We better go down to the meet the others and tell down about what happened."
Asuna, who was now wearing royalty clothes, said to Lilina said, "Thanks for these clothes! I've always wanted to try wearing high class clothes like this!"
"You're welcome!" Lilina replied with a smile.
Negi suddenly heard someone talking to him and quickly got out a card from underneath his pocket to place it onto his forehead. "Is that you, Setsuna?"
"Negi sensei, it's me!" said her voice. "Where are you now? How is everything going on at your side?"
"I'm with Mario and the others. The king is here with the queen as well," he replied. "We're currently on the way down to find you. Where are you?"
"I'm down at the main court with all the others. We have taken out all our enemies, but failed to find the Cruncher's spirit anywhere."
"Oh, that one… How do I put it…? I think we were a bit too late…"
"What do you mean?"
"You see, the enemy already succeeded in freeing its spirit…"
"What did you say?!"
"However, the king said that the enemy did something unexpected instead of restoring the spirit back to the body, and speaking of which, the body is still not yet found. I'll get into details after we meet up with each other. Wait there, okay?"
"All right; we'll be waiting for you. Be careful!"
After Negi put his card away, Mario said to him, "Pretty convenient-a, eezn't eet?"
"Yeah, that's Pactio cards for you," he replied.
-
Setsuna put her card away and told the others, "Looks like we didn't stop the enemies in time…" And everyone was obviously horrified to learn about this.
"Does that mean we'll have to fight the monster that nobody was able to truly kill now?!" Pichu gasped.
"Jiggly!" exclaimed Jigglypuff.
"Actually, I would like to see for myself on why exactly this Cruncher is invincible," Eva said with interest. "Maybe the warriors back then were all weaklings who can't get a single thing right."
"Tell that monster to come! I'll clobber him with my fists!" Wario said, punching his palms. "Invincible or not!"
"Looks like everything didn't go out as planned in the end…" CF said. "It was inevitable that we would face the Cruncher sooner or later."
"Can we really defeat it?" Lucas asked.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!
Everyone almost fell onto his or her backs when the incredibly loud noise that sounded like a beast crying was heard throughout the place. "What was that?!" Yoshi gasped.
"Ugh… My ear drums just burst, I think…" Pichu cried.
Suddenly, an earthquake started and the whole place shook violently. "What the?! An earthquake?!" Kotaro cried.
The vibration of the earthquake went all the way to the outer grounds of the castle and the people out there could all feel it. Eventually, the walls of the castle started to crack and the ceiling slowly broke down as well as the pillars falling down.
"Watch out!" Kaede cried.
A pillar fell on top of Wario, but it broke apart into two instead and Wario was seemingly all right. "Ow! Who hit me?!" he cried, rubbing his head.
"You've got a head of steel or what…?" Chisame asked in surprise.
"Everyone! Bend down and crawl to somewhere safe!" G&W said, and he quickly crawled underneath a table nearby. "Underneath the table is the safest!" But suddenly a large piece of rock fell down and crushed the left side of the table and nearly hit him. "Maybe not…" And he scurried away fast.
-
Roy and the others had just reached the first floor of the castle when the earthquake started. The whole place was starting to break apart and they were trying to avoid the things that fell from the ceiling. "What a strong earthquake!" Luigi gasped. "This is perhaps the strongest I've ever faced in my life!"
"Dammit! Looks like the castle is going to fall apart at this rate!" Roy cried. "It has been standing for over a thousand years already!"
"There's no time to care about the castle, is there?!" Asuna said. "We've got to get out of here and go to somewhere safer!"
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!
The loud noise roared throughout the whole place once again and then a crack suddenly streaked across the floor and up the castle walls. "It's that roar again!" Luigi cried. "What is that noise?!"
As the shaking grew stronger, the floor started to break apart in the form of a fissure and all them were unfortunate enough to be standing right on top of the fissure as it slowly opened up like the mouth of a beast opening. "Watch out!" Roy cried, and he quickly grabbed Lilina and hurled her aside to the safe floor.
"Ow! Roy!"
Out of desperation, Chamo quickly leaped off Negi's shoulder and to where Lilina was. The others tried to run too, but the splitting of the earth which even tore the castle apart into two was somewhat fast and also due to the shaking of the ground, they couldn't stand or move properly, and eventually, Roy, Mario, Luigi, Negi, and Asuna all fell into the fissure.
"YAAAAA!!! WE'RE FALLING!!!" Luigi screamed, flapping his arms desperately like a bird.
Negi gripped his staff tightly and tried to ride on top of it. He managed to get onto it and was about to rescue the others when suddenly another loud roar was heard.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!
And then at this moment, massive amount of air came down from the darkness of the chasm and it was like a giant vacuum cleaner trying to pull them downwards. "Wha?! The air is pulling us down!!" Negi cried.
"MAMAMIA!!!!" Mario, Luigi, and Roy (yes, he shouted like this too) cried as they disappeared into the darkness below while flailing their limbs around frantically and helplessly.
Asuna fell onto the back of Negi's staff but didn't balance herself properly and flipped upside-down with her legs hanging onto the staff, and therefore her skirt fell down over head to reveal… you know what as she screamed. The suction force was too strong for Negi to fight against and he eventually lost his balance on the staff and fell off it along with Asuna into the darkness below, screaming all the way.
"Bro and Asuna sis fell down too!!!" Chamo cried.
"Everyone!!" Lilina shouted out loud.
"Don't! You'll fall down too if you lean too far!" Chamo told her. "Stay away!"
They quickly moved back to avoid getting pulled down by the suction force, which eventually died down and everything was at peace again. "It stopped…" Chamo said.
"Oh no! They all fell down! What do we do?" Lilina wondered. She ran to the edge of the chasm again and looked down shouting out loud, "Everyone! Can you hear me?" But there was no reply at all. "Hey! Respond to me if you can hear me! Roy! Are you all right down there?" Still, no reply of any kind…
"They're not responding… Don't tell me they're dead…?" Chamo said in unbelief.
"Whatever the case is, we better let the others know first," Lilina said, trying not to get so panicked. "I believe that they'll be all right! They've been through a lot of things before and survived, so there is no way they can die so easily!"
"You're pretty calm in a situation like this, but I think you're right. Bro and Asuna sis have also been through a lot and they've survived the odds too. I'm sure they'll be all right!"
-
"We apologize for disturbing the program for something important," the news reporter said on the TV.
"Aw man! And the main guy was just about to confess to the girl!" Yuuna cried. The sport girls were watching a romance TV drama when the news interrupted.
"An earthquake happened at the king's palace several minutes ago and it had caused the entire castle to break apart into two as well as tearing a large fissure on the ground." Then the screen showed the ruined castle from the air.
"Hey! That's the place where Negi sensei went to!" Ako pointed out.
"Oh no! Is Negi-kun is all right?" Makie said in shock.
"Fortunately, the people in there have evacuated beforehand due to invasion of evildoers previously, so nobody was harmed."
Hearing this, Makie became more relieved. "I wonder how their situation is right now though," Akira thought.
-
Back at the castle scene, the cleanup crew had arrived to check the wreckage of the castle as well as seeing if there was anyone hurt. As mentioned by the news reporter, no one was gravely injured. The only ones with any significant injuries were the ones that went inside to fight Fawful and his minions.
"I told you I don't need to go onto the ambulance!" CF told the rescue crew. "I'm in perfect condition!" Though one wouldn't believe him as there were bloodstains and injuries on his body…
"Wow… Look at all the mess…" Pikachu said. "The castle is no longer itself anymore… This has to be the biggest news to go down into in the history of this country…"
"Yeah, Roy must be very pissed and sad by now," Pichu added.
"Hey, Mario and the others hadn't showed up yet," G&W brought up. "They should've been here a long time ago."
"Negi sensei isn't here as well…" Nodoka said. "And Asuna…"
Setsuna turned to look at the castle and said, "Don't tell me they're still in there?!"
"That would mean Mario and the others are in there too!" Yoshi said.
"The king still hasn't come out yet!" one of the workers said. "We're currently looking for him!"
"We've found the queen!" said the voice of another worker. He stepped out from the castle entrance with Lilina and Chamo next to him.
"It's good to see that everyone is all right here!" Chamo said happily to his comrades.
Everyone immediately gathered around Lilina and Chamo and poured down several questions on them concerning the missing ones.
"Is Negi sensei all right?"
"Where's Asuna?"
"Where's Mario?"
"Roy! Where'd he go?"
"Are you hurt?"
"What happened in there?"
"Hold on, everyone…" Lilina said, trying to calm them down. "Okay, let's put it straight… The fissure that happened, you know right? They all fell down there…"
They were all shocked to hear this. "What?! Mario fell down?!" Yoshi gasped.
"Oh no! Does that mean Negi sensei is…?" Nodoka said in shock. She was almost bursting into tears when she heard this, so Haruna and Yue quickly comforted her.
"I don't believe how he can die so easily!" Kotaro said. "He's got to be still alive down there! There is still hope if we go rescue them!"
"Yeah, I don't think my pupil will go down so easily," Eva said. Suddenly, she felt some uncomfortable presence in her mind.
Chachamaru could tell this and asked her, "What is wrong, master?"
"Nothing… It's just that… I felt a very strong energy reading coming from somewhere… A very sinister energy seems to be present here at the moment…"
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!
The loud roar-like sound shattered through the air again and everyone jumped to his or her feet upon hearing it, and once again the earthquake started.
"It's another earthquake!"
"Not again!!!"
"What is happening?!"
-
Meanwhile, at a research area, several scientists were looking into the seismograph to study the earthquake. "I've made an astounding discovery!" said a random scientist.
"What is it?"
"The epicenter of the earthquake is actually moving! It's moving to the west of the castle!"
"What?!"
"Not only that, but the epicenter is actually giving off heat. It's as if it has a life of its own!"
-
"It appears that the epicenter of the earthquake is moving towards the east," ROB said.
"How'd you know?" Marth asked him.
"I have scanned the ground to get a better understanding of the situation, and I have also made the discovery that the one responsible for the earthquake is a living being."
"You mean something living is causing this earthquake and it is currently traveling underneath the ground as we speak?" Meta-Knight said. That was when something hit him. "Can it be… the Cruncher?"
"I have a good guess that would be it," ROB said with a nod.
"So it's true that Fawful succeeded…" CF said. "They really are too late after all… And to think that the Cruncher would actually be hidden underneath this castle all along…"
"Nobody would've guessed this to begin with…" Marth said.
The shaking gradually grew weaker, but they could see the landscape towards the east side was growing stronger instead and even the floor cracked and ripped apart slightly. "Looks like the source of the earthquake is traveling in that direction all right," CF said.
"If that is the monster's doing, let's go after it!" Wario said.
"But even if we encounter the Cruncher, we cannot defeat it!" Chisame reminded them.
"Yeah, I don't find a point in fighting a monster that cannot be killed too…" Pikachu agreed.
"We have no proof that the Cruncher is really invincible if you ask me," CF claimed. "Maybe several hundreds of years ago, weapon technology wasn't as powerful and they couldn't bring it down. Whatever the case is, let's follow the source of the earthquake and see where it goes to and then think of what to do."
"I'm very interested in fighting the Cruncher too," Eva said. "I'd like to see how invincible it is exactly. Heheheheh!" And then she said in her own head, "Could that also be the source of the evil presence I am feeling?"
Gyde walked up to them and said, "You people want to go after the source of the earthquake? I wouldn't think that this is a wise choice, but if you insist, I will take you there! I can tell that you people can do something about this and save Lycia from the disaster caused by the Cruncher hundreds of years ago! Let's get onto the bus and take off then!"
-
"Ow… Where am I…? Why can't I open my eyes…? I'm having a hard time breathing too…" Negi thought. "I can't seem to move my head either!"
"Ow… That hurts…" Asuna cried. She looked down and realized she was sitting right on top of Negi's face, and thus quickly got off him. "Negi, are you all right?"
"Yeah, all right, I think…" he said with a slightly blushing face.
They both stood up and rubbed the sore parts of their body and looked around. Nearby, Mario, Luigi, and Roy also got back up. "Ow… What a fall... Looks like we survived after all…" Roy said.
"I thought I was a goner…" Luigi said, still sounding frightened.
"Where eez theez place?" Mario asked.
They looked around the place and saw there were in a dark cave-like area, but the walls and structures didn't exactly look like they were made of rocks or minerals. They looked more skeletal and somewhat organic in appearance.
"What is this place…?" Negi wondered.
TO BE CONTINUED
Where have Mario's group landed in? I think it shouldn't be all that hard to guess. The next chapter will answer many things that you want to know, so stay tuned!