Chapter 39
It is time for the final battle!
"Hmmm… No good… Mario's phone won't connect…" Yoshi said, looking at his cell phone.
"Connection must be really poor down in the ground," G&W said. "Now we'll never be able to contact him."
At the same time, the girls that had formed Pactio contract with Negi were also desperately trying to contact him through the card, but they couldn't get in touch with him either. "I'm not getting any respond from him at all…" Konoka said.
"We should be able to get in touch with him as long as we are within 10 kilometers radius," Yue said. "This is strange…"
"Is everybody ready?" Captain Falcon said to them all from the entrance of the bus. "We're ready to leave now! The driver is too scared to drive towards the source of the earthquake, so I'll be taking the steering wheel instead!"
Hearing this, Pikachu whispered into Pichu's ear, "I think we can expect one heck of a ride…"
"I actually enjoy this," Pichu said.
After they all got onto the bus and took their seats, Lilina ran up to door and said, "Please be all right! We're trying to rescue Roy and the others from the fissure. We're counting on you to save this country now!"
"Don't worry!" CF said, giving a thumb up. "We will not let the Cruncher repeat history like before. You can count on us to bring it down real this time!" Turning his head to the back, he shouted, "Is everyone ready? Fasten your seatbelts and then let's get going!"
"There are seatbelts?" Pit asked, looking to his sides, but he suddenly fell back when CF stepped on the gas pedal to the fullest and zoomed off. "Whoa!"
And the bus zoomed across the field equivalent to a F1 racing car.
-
Mario and the others found themselves in this very strange and eerie-looking place after they fell down the fissure. "What is this place?" Roy asked.
"Whatever this place is, it's giving me the creeps…" Luigi said. "And why do I feel like the whole place is vibrating?"
"Yeah, the ground does feel like it is vibrating…" Negi said.
"No use eef we just-a stand-a around," Mario stated. "We might-a as well look-a around da place and figure a way outta here."
-
Meanwhile, the bus continued driving across the field that was shaking due to something massive traveling underneath the ground. "The shaking is getting stronger," CF said. "Everyone sit tightly and don't fall off your seat or get hurt!"
"The fact that your driving speed is monstrous is already giving some of us heart attacks already…" Marth told him.
"I slowed down a lot, didn't I?"
"The speed meter still reads over 130 kilometers per hour…"
Way in the back seat, Chisame was using her artifacts to gather information on the situation of the earthquake. "According to Negi…" she started.
"What?" Nodoka said curiously, poking her head up from behind her seat.
"I mean one of my mouse spirits... His name is Negi as well… Anyway, according to him, the Cruncher is currently ahead of us moving at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour and is traveling at a straight path. We're not very far from above its head actually."
"That monster sure can run fast its size…" Kotaro said.
"Any idea where it's planning to head to?" Eva asked.
"How do you expect me to know that…?" Chisame told her.
"If we keep on going in this direction," Gyde said, "we will eventually reach the Dragon Ruins. Back when dragons resided in this country, it was a place where dragons loved to gather around. Now it is nothing but a tourist attraction."
"Whatever the case is, we'll just keep go after it until it stops!" CF said.
-
Meanwhile, Mario's group was still traveling through the odd cave. As they walked across the ground, they noted that it was somewhat soft and when they went through the smaller passages and brushed their arms and skin against the walls, it felt slimy and warm. In fact, the walls all looked like it was pulsating with life. "Ugh… This place gives me creeps…" Asuna groaned in disgust. "I want to get out of wherever this place is already…"
"Why do I have a feeling that we got digested…?" Luigi said.
"Actually, that's what was going on in my mind…" Roy said. "It looks like we're inside the body of some large living thing."
"Eet duz make sense eef you ask-a me…" Mario said.
"For real? Ugh! Then I want to get out of here even more!" Asuna said.
"But if that is true? What are we inside of?" Negi asked. "I tried to contacting the others using my cards, but the signal isn't getting through…"
"My cell phone eezn't working too," Mario said.
They soon came out from the small passage and walked across a narrow strip of land that resembled a bone and there were purple boiling liquid down below. "Must be poison…" Luigi said, looking down at them. "Imagine falling down there…"
There was a sudden shaking and Luigi lost his balance and fell off the edge. "AAHH!!!"
But Mario caught his hand in the nick of time and saved him from death. "Are you all right-a?"
"I want to get out… of here already…" Luigi cried.
-
Back on the surface, the earthquake was causing the trees to fall over as well as portions of the ground breaking and rising into the air. "This may be a bumpy ride, everyone!" CF said. "Fasten your seatbelts!"
"But there are no seatbelts!" Pit said before he fell back onto the seat from the sudden speed boost again. "Whoa!"
CF sped across the field as fast as he could and due to the bumpy path, the bus jumped into the air constantly and the people inside kept on banging their head against the ceiling over and over, except for the captain himself.
Then a towering tree in front started to fall over, and CF quickly backed off to avoid getting crush and this caused everyone to fly forward and smash their face against the seat in front of them, except for Gyde who smashed his face into the glass since he was sitting way up front next to CF.
CF drove around to the side of the tree and zoomed off again, once again making everyone fly to the back of their seats. The road was still very bumpy and the bus jumped up and down and everyone was having a fun time (yeah right) hitting their heads against the ceiling over and over.
BONK BONK BONK!!!!
"I think I can see the ruins up front!" CF said, and sure enough, some stone monuments and what looked like building remains was starting to surface over the horizon of the darkening sky (it's evening, you know).
As the bus approached closer and closer to the ruins, he saw the ground next to the ruins starting to break apart. Chisame shook and rubbed her head to get back to her senses from the bumpy ride and looked at her laptop and said, "The Cruncher seems to have stopped moving! It stopped next to the ruins!"
"I can see that!" CF said. The ground start to rise and then break open, and thus CF quickly backed up the bus to a safer distance.
"Something is coming out!" Gyde pointed out.
"Yes, I can see that," CF told him.
The shaking caused some of the stone monuments to fall over and suddenly, a massive arm burst out from next to the ruins much to the surprise of everyone. "A giant arm just came out!!!" Yoshi screamed.
Slowly, the ground and the dirt gave way as something even larger slowly tore its way out of the ground. It was hard to tell what it was at first due to the dust and dirt flying around in the air, but as the thing fully stopped rising up from the ground and the shaking ceased, it was in full view to everyone.
"HOLY COW!!!!!" Dedede screamed with his eyes popping out of his head.
"YOSHI!!! PIKA!!! PICHI!!! JIGGLY!!! SQUAWK!!!!" gasped Yoshi, Pikachu, Pichu, Jigglypuff, and Parry together.
"It's huge-aru!" Ku Fei exclaimed.
"It's so scary!!!" Konoka cried.
"So that is the monster?!" Kotaro said, surprised.
Rising out from the ground in front of them was a large and monstrous being with pitch black skin and glowing purple eyes. Its whole body did not come out from the ground however, so only its upper body was visible. Its head was reptilian in appearance and was somewhat crescent-shaped, especially towards the top and its pointy sides reached far to the back. Its arms were like massive pillars that were placed on the ground as if to support its massive body.
It was the Cruncher.
Opening its massive mouth that was filled with rows of sharp and long teeth, the Cruncher let out a loud and terrifying roar the rang through the night sky.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!
Because they were at such a close range, the roar was very damaging to their ears and the glasses of the bus shattered too. "So that's where the sound came from!" Red cried.
"So this is the Cruncher…" CF said, getting off the bus, and he was soon followed by the others.
"It's so big…" Kirby said. "Can we defeat something this big…? We're like little ants looking up at a cow…"
Indeed, the Cruncher was very big compared to them. What was visible above the surface was about 40 meters in height alone, so you don't want to imagine how big it really is if one got to see the rest of its body…
"You know… The black skin and purple eyes remind me of something…" Marth said. "Maybe just a coincidence…"
"So this is the thing that is giving off the evil energy," Eva said. "Looks pretty impressive, doesn't it?"
At the same time, helicopters appeared up in the air and news reporters that were in there were recording down everything their camera saw and broadcasted it live to the TV, so currently everyone in Lycia who had their TV turned on could see the Cruncher in full view.
"What we are looking at now," the news reporter said, "is not a movie filming or anything! It is none other than the legendary monster that once terrorized Lycia several hundred years ago, the Cruncher! It was said to be immortal but was defeated when a powerful mage separated its spirit from its body, but it seems to have been brought back to life again! Is there any hope of defeating it now?"
-
Back at the hotel, the remaining 3-A girls were all watching the situation on TV from their own rooms currently.
-
Room 350
"That's the monster Negi sensei's ancestor defeated several years ago!" Akira said.
"Oh no! Does that mean they failed to stop it from coming back to life?!" Yuuna gasped.
"Oh no! What happened to Negi-kun then?!" Makie cried.
-
Room 410
"Whoa man! What a scoop! I better tape this down!" Kazumi said with excitement.
"This isn't time to be thinking about that!" Ayaka told her. "Our classmates and Negi sensei must be there trying to fight it! We should be worried about them at the moment!"
-
At the same time, Mario's group had arrived at a large empty space within this odd organic cave. "It's that terrifying sounding roar again!" Luigi cried. "Where exactly are we?!"
Negi suddenly noticed something forming in the air and told everyone to look. Up in the air, dark particles were slowly gathering together to form a humanoid shape, and then it finally it transformed into Fawful. "I have fury!"
"It's that guy!" Asuna said.
"You! Where did you go to earlier?!" Roy asked him. "We haven't settled our score yet!"
"Geehehehehehe! The situation you are in right now do you still not know? Oh how your stupidity makes me laugh! Geehehehehehe!" Fawful said. Raising his arm into the air, he said loudly, "Now is the time when the grandest part of my scheme comes to rise! At last I have succeeded in the fusion with the Cruncher! The Cruncher and I are now the one and the same!"
"What?! You fused yourself with the Cruncher?!" Negi gasped.
"So that was the reason you absorbed the spirit…" Roy said. "Just so you can become one with the Cruncher control it as you wish…"
-
"Huh? Did you hear that?" Pichu asked.
"Yeah, it sounded like Fawful's voice," CF said.
"And it appears to be…" Meta-Knight said as he turned to look at the Cruncher, "coming from there…"
"Oh how smart of you to see through the plans in my gray matter!" said the voice of Fawful that seemed to be coming from the Cruncher. "And yet fail you did to realize that you are standing inside the body of the Cruncher."
"What?! Who is inside the Cruncher?!" Red said.
-
"What?! You mean we're inside the Cruncher all along?!" Asuna gasped.
"No wonder…" Mario said.
"Oh man… That explains the bad feeling I have about being digested…" Luigi cried. "I want to get out of here now…"
Suddenly, Mario's cell phone rang and he quickly answered it, "Hello?"
-
"It's me, Yoshi!" Yoshi said into his cell phone. "Where are you?"
"I am inside da Cruncher!" Mario's voice replied.
"Really? Just as expected!" He then switched his cell phone to broadcast mode so that everyone could hear Mario's voice. "Who else is with you?"
"Luigi, Roy, Negi, and Asuna."
"What?! Negi sensei is inside there as well?!" Setsuna said in shock.
"Negi sensei!!" Nodoka cried. She ran up to next to Yoshi and said to the phone, "Is he all right in there?"
"Everyone eez all right-a!" Mario responded. "Right-a now we are face to face with Fawful!"
"That guy is in there too?" CF said curiously.
"Geehehehe!!!" the voice of Fawful said from the Cruncher, who was doing nothing but looking around and growling. "Do you have fear? Behold the mightiness and the nastiness that is the Cruncher in front of your eyes! One I have become with the Cruncher and everything it sees and knows have become one with me too! Oh how I tremble at the things of what I just learned! The life of the Cruncher now flashes before my eyes as if my life is flashing before my eyes even though death is not nigh for me! Oh, such excitement do I feel to share to you what I learned!"
"Where is that guy getting at…?" Pikachu asked.
"Such a long story the Cruncher has! Yes, the story is the lengthiness! Oh how it remember the times that it was known as the Cruncher Darkling!"
The moment they heard the term 'Darkling', Captain Falcon, Marth, G&W, Pikachu, Pichu, Jigglypuff, Yoshi, and Parry shot up their heads and looks of shock and horror appeared on their faces as they shouted out loud simultaneously, "DARKLING?!?!??!"
-
"DARKLING?!?!?!!" Mario, Luigi, and Roy gasped in shock when they heard what Fawful just said.
"What? What's wrong?" Asuna asked.
"The Cruncher is a Darkling?!" Roy said in unbelief.
"Oh my god! What is a Darkling still doing in this world?!" Luigi cried as he wobbled from head to toe. "Shouldn't they all be sealed away in the Forbidden Realm already?!"
-
"Darkling?! The ones known as the embodiment of evil?!" Pichu said in shock. "Are you kidding me?! The Cruncher is a Darkling?!"
"No wonder the black skin and purple eyes struck me earlier…" Marth said.
"Excuse me, but can you explain to me why you are so surprised-aru?" Ku Fei asked.
"To put it simple, they are the embodiment of evil," Marth explained. "I'm sure most of you know of the Darkling incident."
"We were the ones who stopped the Darkling invasion," CF continued. "We battled against the man who released the Darkling from their prison and saved the world from destruction."
"Thousands of years ago, the time of the Great War," Fawful continued to speak from inside the Cruncher, "How the sight of the killing and destruction bring happiness and memories! I have nostalgia! The Hands and the Darkling battled like mindless idiots fighting over the dinner table! The Cruncher Darkling remembers when it was in the war, but it had fear! It feared death, so it burrowed into the ground and dug through the soil like knife through butter and made its house deep inside the planet! The air and atmosphere of the planet's core was different. It is comfortable, so home it made in the planet and went into deep slumber it did!"
"Okay, let me summarize from what I understand…" G&W said. "The Cruncher used to participate in the Great War thousands of years ago against the Royal Hand Family, but it was afraid of going out to fight, so it burrowed into the ground and hid deep in the core of Tooneria where the atmosphere was suitable for it for whatever reason and then it went into a deep sleep."
"Time comes to pass! The Cruncher Darkling grew like a strong boy! Oh how it was just a cute little thing in its prime, but look at how healthy it grew! It has boredom, so off to the surface it went and behold! Lycia is a playground for it! How many hundreds of years it must have been since the war ended, and no more Hands are in sight to stop it! The Cruncher Darkling has happiness and it plays like a little kid and make people cry!" Fawful continued.
"After several hundreds years, the Cruncher Darkling grew from a miniature size into its current gigantic form and then resurfaced again in Lycia and started causing destruction," G&W translated. "I think we know the rest of the story from there now…"
"Wait a minute… Darkling shouldn't be able to exist in this world because the atmosphere isn't impure enough for them!" Yoshi said. "At least that's why we have to go destroy those Dark Reactors…"
"That's true, but Crazy Hand did say that powerful Darkling can survive longer than weaker ones," G&W reminded him. "In fact, I remember that he brought up the fact once that the 7 Deadly Incarnations are capable of existing in this world without any harm to their bodies at all because of their immense powers. That brings us to this matter… If the Cruncher Darkling could survive all this year with no problem, it would mean it is a really powerful Darkling…"
"That explains everything…" CF said. "Now I know why the Cruncher was invincible. That was only because…"
"No one used the right weapons to fight it," Marth said, finishing the phrase for him.
"That would be the Holy Weapons…" G&W added.
"The Holy Weapons?" Kaede said curiously.
"I heard of those," Eva said. "They're made by the Royal Hand Family in fear that the Darkling may one day arise again."
"Yeah, and we have that in our possession," Yoshi said. "We are Master Hand's pupils after all!"
"As I figured…"
"That means you people have the hope of defeating the Cruncher, right?" Haruna said.
"We didn't bring it," Yoshi said blatantly.
"What?!" the girls gasped.
"Yeah, we didn't bring it," CF said. "So our hope of destroying the Cruncher is absolute zero."
"No, there is still a chance!" Roy's voice said from Yoshi's cell phone.
-
Back inside the Cruncher's body, Roy reached for his Binding Blade and then sheathed it. "I have a Holy Weapon with me." Pointing it at Fawful, he said, "The Binding Blade!"
"Oh yeah! The Binding Blade is one of the Holy Weapons!" Luigi said. "Now we have chances of winning!" He turned to Fawful and said fearlessly, "Now what will you do? Our friend, the king, over here has the weapon built for destroying Darkling! If you have fused yourself with the Cruncher, then you should surely fear the Holy Weapon!"
"Geehehehehehe!! I have fury!" Fawful said loudly. "It is the time when the toady named Fawful takes the spotlight and walk in the glory that my master Cackletta once walked in! In her steps I will walk to become the master of the world! Such little weapon I have no care of! Behold the power that I possess and be afraid, very afraid!"
Fawful stretched out his arms and dark energy slowly consumed. Slowly, the dark energy expanded into a large sphere, and then out from the sides of the dark sphere, six long spider-like legs came out and a zigzagged antenna with a circle on the tip grew out from the top of the sphere, and there was an evil face similar to the Cruncher's face on the circle too. A pair of long arms with sharp claws came out just above the legs and finally, a face consisting of a pair of large purple eyes and a large grinning mouth appeared on the front of the sphere as it molded itself into the shape of Fawful's head.
"Mamamia!" Mario said in shock.
"I have fury!!!!" a newly transformed Fawful said loudly. "Oh how I marvel at the new power that I have! Where is your god now? Your lives that I spit on now are nothing but a caricature of cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid! This is the time for the final battle to take place, on the center of the gala where the spotlight shines on! Fink rats like you are an eyesore and bring me fury! Disappear from my sight you should!"
"Tsk! Like we're going to be afraid of you!" said Roy, walking up front with his Binding Blade gripped tightly in his hand. "So long as I have this with me, you will surely go down!"
"We will help too!" Negi said, stepping forward. "I know that you are the only one here who is capable of defeating Fawful and the Cruncher, but please let me lend you my power too! I will do everything it takes to put an end to this!"
"Don't-a forget-a uz too!" Mario said. "We will fight-a alongside-a you no matter who da enemy is!"
"Well, looks like there's no other way out of this other than to fight," Asuna said. Taking her out her Pactio card, she said the magic word and then in a flash, a large metal sword appeared. "Let's give it all we've got then!"
"Um… Do I need to do anything?" Luigi asked.
Mario then spoke into his cell phone, "What-a are you guys going to do?"
-
"It's true that we have absolutely no chance of bringing down the Cruncher Darkling," CF replied. "But that doesn't mean we will pull back!"
"Right, it just isn't my style," Marth said. "If there is an opponent that must be destroyed, I will not run from it."
"But we have no chance of defeating the Cruncher!" Pikachu said. "We'll just be wasting our energy!"
"Wouldn't hurt to try," CF replied. "The most we can do is to wear down the Cruncher and keep it from doing anything dangerous."
"Then we shall fight with full strength then," Meta-Knight said. "After all, we are facing off against the embodiment of evil that cannot be killed without the right weapons."
"Oh boy! I can't wait to clobber this monster!" Wario said delightfully.
"Are you sure you all are going to fight this thing?!" Chisame asked. "There is no way we can win against that thing! We should just hide and leave it to your friend inside to do the job!"
"No… I think we should fight too…" Nodoka said, and this made everyone turn to look at her. "Negi sensei is inside the Cruncher right now and even though he knows he cannot defeat the enemy himself, he still putting his effort to fight it… I can tell by reading my artifact… If Negi sensei is fighting hard for everyone and the world, we should give all our best and help him the best we can too…"
Haruna patted her on the shoulder and said, "You have a good point!"
"Yeah, that's just exactly what Negi sensei would do and say," Yue said.
"Who cares if the opponent is invincible?" Eva said. "I'm not going to back down from this big ugly monster either!"
"If master is willing to fight, I am willing to fight alongside her," Chachamaru said.
"I'll give everything I've got! I won't let Negi sensei down-aru!" Ku Fei said excitedly.
"Backing off from enemies isn't my style too, so I am going to fight-degozaru," Kaede said.
"I hope I get a good payment for this after this is all done with," Mana said as she walked forward with a massive machine gun mounted to her right shoulder.
"Whoa… Where'd you get that from?" Pikachu asked.
"I didn't get much chance to shine back in the castle, so this time I'm not going to sit back and do nothing anymore!" Kotaro said, punching his palm.
"If everyone is fighting, I will stay around to help here anyone who is hurt!" Konoka said.
"Please stay back, Ojou-sama!" Setsuna told her. "It's too dangerous for you to be here, so let me handle everything."
"Don't say that, Secchan! I'm part of the class too, so I'm willing to risk my life for everything!"
"But…"
"Don't worry, Secchan. I won't get myself into so much trouble. I'll heal you if you get hurt!"
Red reached his Pokeballs and said, "Okay, everyone! Time to face someone several times your size! Hope you try your best!"
"I must be brave!" Lucas said in his mind. "I must not back down from any kind of enemy!"
"Goddess Palutena, please give us the strength to win this battle!" Pit said a silent prayer.
"The chance of winning is zero, but fighting is the only option left," ROB said.
"Who cares if the enemy is invincible? I'm going to clobber it in the name of the king!" Dedede said.
"Well, looks like we'll have to go all out," Yoshi said to Lucario. "Are you ready, son?"
"I am ready to fight alongside you, father," Lucario said, getting into fighting stance.
"Can't deny the fact that the enemy can't be defeated, but it's all up to Roy now," G&W thought.
The Cruncher, seeing that everyone was going to attack him (I'll just refer to it as a male from now on) lowered his head to look at them, and then it let out a roar that nearly blew them all to their backs.
"We don't care whether you are a Darkling or not or whether we have the Holy Weapons or not," CF said. "We are going to strike you down once and for all!"
-
Inside the Cruncher, Roy pointed his Binding Blade at Fawful and said, "Get ready to meet your maker! By destroying you, it will be equivalent to destroying the Cruncher since you are basically his mind and soul now!"
"I will not forgive your evil ways!" Negi said angrily. "I'm going to defeat you here!"
Fawful simply snickered at their words and said loudly, "Taste my fury, fink rats! Geehehehehehehe!!!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Whoever said that I forgot about the Darkling? Surprised that the Cruncher is in fact a Darkling all along? For those who haven't read Darkling yet, I recommend you to read it. That story is my first step into creating my current SSB series universe. Its quality may not be as high as the current stories, but it is still worth a read.
And thus, the final battle will come next chapter. It might take much longer than the previous chapters since I want to make it as good as possible and put effort into it. I'm still deciding whether it should be one chapter or separated into two chapters. Anyway, have patience as I try to work up an epic final battle!
How about guessing which final boss theme I'm planning to use?