Chapter 13: All Kneel to the King

I walked in through the front door of the Sky Temple, making my way through a wide-open hallway with walls covered in cotton covered vines until I reach a massive gap that splits the room in two. This place doesn't have a different color compared to the outside world, which makes sense considering the element I'm dealing with. I remembered how the room blocks out all magic to prevent an easy crossing, but I didn't believe that such a spell was in effect since I was still in my form. I scratched my scalp, trying to remember as hard as I can as to what we did the last time to get to the other side.

"I think Mario did something unconventional…" I looked up towards the ceiling as a faint memory rises to the surface of my mind. To my disappointment, there was no pale white vine slipping out slightly through the cracks. "Well I guess that makes sense. After all, I can't use the Cloud Flowers." But that just begged the question as to how I would cross the gap then. I wasn't going to trust the cloud beneath the floor to stay together while I created a bridge of water to the other side. I was distracted by the faint presence of water in the room. I knew that there was bits of moisture built up in the clouds, but this sensation was different from the one I sensed in the fluffy structures.

It came from the right of me, in the part of the wall that had the most bricks keeping it together. I moved over to it and glared into it. I could definitely see the sky outside in all of its monochrome "glory", so the scenery wasn't an illusion. What was though, as I soon discovered by putting my right hand out in front of me, is the wall itself. I wiggled my fingers, each one distorting it in a different direction. "Fog…" I said to myself, pulling my hand back and resting the tip of my center three fingers against the bottom of my lips as I thought about the illusion a bit more.

There was something familiar about the energy I sensed was used to create this fake wall, and unlike the last time I felt it there was not a friendly will but a hostile intent coming from it. If I passed through this with my whole body, there is no doubt that a trap would activate on the other side. Of course, at least I'd have a chance of surviving that. If there nothing on the other side, I would fall to my death with no hope of survival. "Should I take the chance?" I asked myself. Fog is meant to deceive people on purpose, only the most perceptive of the lot should be able to discern the truth from the lies amidst the nearly sightless atmosphere.

"I have to take a risk." I said to myself, admitting that the best option here was to be reckless for once. Though I did want to have some safety measure put into place in case my second concern was true. I backed up and held my left arm out, closing my eyes to begin imagining the area behind the false wall. I carved the outline of a platform of water that I could step on only in this form, the two-dimensional form being filled in with a single thought only a few seconds later. I kept focus on the platform's creation and began to walk forward, bravely passing through the foggy wall in stepping down onto the steady water platform.

But my foot's contact with the platform sent a few light ripples through the structure, which didn't cause it to break apart mind you, but almost caused me to flinch in panic for a second. I lowered my arm now that the platform was bonded to my feet, creaking my eyelids open to see the sight set before me. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I saw blue skies and pure white clouds scattered across the way. It painted the scenery for a crumbling brimstone spiral walkway that led towards a massive cylinder that the doorway in the previous room would've lead me to. I had to wonder why this room was untouched when all other areas in the previous temples were kept to one type of color.

It was then that it hit me. Mr. Reality knew about these temples and knew what to change based on what was in the memories he probably read in my mind using his powers, but this was an area that I had never traversed before so it remained untouched. Even though I knew where this lead me to, I didn't have any idea just what would await me when I got to the end. For now though, I would be able to enjoy the walk across the thin pathway from beginning to end. I needed this break, it would help me clear my head of any negative thoughts before I had to fill them again with the concerns that arose from confronting another of my friends. I reached the spiral in a matter of seconds, sniffing in the clear air as I looked around once more and marveled at the sights around me.

"Its hard to believe how realistic the environment is. The Elemental Overlord had to have worked really hard to recreate the atmospheric effect that makes the sky appear blue to us on the planet's surface…" Not to mention that on top of that, the oxygen I breathed in was pure, devoid of any carbon dioxide. "Such a shame about the time limit…This would be a nice place to lay back and take a nap were it not for that." I continued on my after with that thought in my mind, breaking out of my calm as I reached the top of the spiral and began to take the pathway towards the circular doorway that led into the large metallic cylinder.

I pulled my staff out from the holster of my belt, feeling that I would need it soon based entirely on intuition. Suddenly, the stones below my feet began to rumble. I kept myself steady by spreading my legs for support, pulling my arms out and looking around as the color in the sky began to fade away, taking on a liquid-y form and draining down the sides into a hole that just appeared at the bottom of the room. The pathway started to come crashing down one bit at a time, starting mainly from the entrance and continuing at a rapid pace towards my current destination.

With the way the stones were breaking upon making contact with the ground, I could only begin to imagine such a similar fate befalling me in my head as I pulled my head back in disgust and surprise before making a dash for the end of the hallway. I turned my head behind me and saw the crumbling stones catching up to me in spite of my speed, and this actually caused me to worry as I looked down and noticed that past the hole the colors were deposited through the cloud of toxic smog was waiting to consume me.

I was actually beginning to think that if I fell I could easily get back up with my water powers, but now with the risk the toxic cloud presented I had no choice but to keep up my sprint until I reached the very end of the pathway. In the midst of my charge I had almost failed to notice the lack of a platform through the doorway at the end. The pathway was only an inch away from collapsing below my feet, so I had to act quickly. I threw my right hand into the air, summoning the platform of water that would cushion me as I tumble forward with both arms stretched out in front of my head and my legs pulled behind me and land on the ground seconds later, curling my arms and performing a somersault that gets me to safety in just the nick of time.

Speaking of nicks, I managed to nick my kneecaps against the chipped rocks, though thanks to the protection of my jeans I didn't suffer any damages besides a cut through the fibers and a light scratch on the skin. I kneeled down on the platform with my right leg and stretched the left one out to work out the kinks in the bones, and then proceeded to alternate which legs were in what positions before I said to myself, "Another sanctuary tainted…Is there any of the Overlord's temples he hasn't defiled?"

"That is something for you to discover if you continue to survive…" Mr. Reality's voice brought me to my feet in furious anger, clenching my fists as I spun my head around to try and find his putrid little face staring at me through his usual method of contact. But this time there was nothing to be found. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" I blurted out, having lost control of rationality simply because I was getting sick and tired of everything the alien had done to both myself and the innocent populace of the planet. "Nowhere that is important to you, at the very least not yet. But I am watching you at all times, and I'm a little disappointed in you for trying to cheat…"

"What do you mean, cheat?" I call to him with my eyebrows slanted in disgust. "You follow my rules and designs…That room you were just in is not part of the design, and by traversing it you avoided the puzzle that was set up for you in the entrance hallway." Reality responded to me in a tone designed to berate me fully for my supposed error, but I lashed back at him, saying, "Well sorry for not doing things your way, but I thought that room was meant to be the solution to that puzzle." There was actually a period of silence after that which I used to calm myself down slightly and loosened my fingers from their current position. "…Hmm, I guess you didn't know about that area. I suppose I overreacted then…"

It was strange to see Mr. Reality apologizing for a mistake, but I would feel a bit happier if he actually showed remorse and apologized for everything he had done upon until now. "I will admit this inconveniences me a bit since I'll now have to travel to the other temples and look for any other secret areas and re-arrange the puzzles accordingly. However, I'm going to do something rather uncharacteristic of a game master and give you a free pass through this room…" After that sentence that had a hint of regret in the way it was spoken, I no longer heard his voice and suddenly found myself surrounded by a sphere of light.

I was then thrust through the air at high-speeds, my body barely being able to stay in place thanks to the velocity I was traveling at. Eventually the containment field broke and let me off at the top of the cylinder, though I was flung forward onto the ground belly first much to my annoyance. "I guess he couldn't resist taking another jab at me despite being helpful…" I bemoaned in my mind as I pulled myself onto my feet once again and brushed the dirt off of my jeans. Of course, as I lifted my head up I wondered why I even did that, since there was a light shower coming down from the ceiling in front of me that could've washed my clothes off for me.

…Or drip acid that would melt me down to my basic elements. That sounds like the type of thing he'd try and pull on me after all. Still, acid had water as a base, so I held my arms out and pulled them out to the side, parting the falling drops like a curtain so I could pass through them without any worries whatsoever. "Really, the only thing useful about this shower is that it got rid of the Cloud Suits on the Mario Bros…." I said to myself as I moved my arms back into my body to let the shower return to its normal position. After all, when I got everything restored I wouldn't have to worry about it again.

Without anymore concerns I entered the final room of the temple, where I was greeted by a dark-red carpet with rough golden edges that led the way to an emerald bordered throne at the top of a short stairway. I didn't have a time to detail the rest of the environment, because my friend was sitting on the throne at this very moment. Mallow, the little Nimbusian who I once easily identified thanks to his bushy blue and white striped pants, innocent smile and curled-up strand of pink hair instead wore an eerie, menacing smile, a tattered red cape on the back of his body, a jagged silver crown with blue jewels in the center of the points above his head, and the right arm that is leaned against the arm of the chair has a demonic onyx staff tipped with a blood red six-sided three-dimensional jewel held in his grasp.

"I knew you would arrive eventually, Overlord." The only thing familiar was his voice, which still maintained some innocence despite the grim echoes buried within. "Mallow…" No, I couldn't truly call him that. No matter the appearance, this was his "Shadow", not the real deal. This was an unholy reunion, made worse by my concern over the tyrant-like appearance the "Shadow" had taken to. "What lured you here? Was it your feeble desire to restore your control over the Sky domain, or your pathetic sympathy towards the fate of the Nimbusians I converted into that toxic smog for my own goals?"

"What?" I stared at Mallow in disbelief for a few moments as he casually admitted to such a heinous crime. "But they were your own people, why would you use them in such a way?!" I called out to question his sanity. "My people, or my pawns? I guess it doesn't make a difference what you or I choose to call them, I'd use them for my purpose all the same. You see, I created the cloud to use as an ultimatum for the planet. Either they make me the king of the world, or I will bury the planet in the smog one city at a time." "That's ridiculous." I noted with much disgust as Mallow finished explaining the purpose of the giant cloud. "What would even drive you to go that far?"

"You know how my father is the King of Nimbus Land?" Mallow starts off the answer with another question to try and confirm my knowledge, and I nod my head once before he sits up straight and rests his scepter on the arm of the throne. "That foolish man sought to give me the throne as soon as I got back from our original journey, but I declined. You want to know why? Ever since I learned who I was and what my people were, I wanted to prepare myself for the day when I would have to lead them, I wanted to be confident that I could take over as the king. But did he take my feelings into consideration? No, he just wanted to force me onto the throne because he was too incompetent to continue running the city himself…"

"But I don't need his blessing now. I not only have the confidence to rule over Nimbus Land, but the confidence and power necessary to make the entire world bend to me! And I will be doing it all on my terms!" With the last bit declared with a high amount of emphasis on the "my" as he points at himself with his right hand, Mallow finished making his purpose known. It was ridiculous though. I mean, I could see the true self that the 'Shadow" portrayed to me, but the extremes it was going through just seemed far too uncharacteristic of Mallow. "You aren't going to be a king though…Threatening the populace with the cloud, keeping it around to maintain your iron-fisted rule…You'll be a tyrant, nothing more, nothing less."

This clearly angered the "Shadow", who lifted his body up and said to me with a growling tone, "King, tyrant, emperor, why do you think I care at all about the title I'll be labeled as? I'll be the undisputable ruler of the planet as soon as I get rid of you!" He picks his staff up and brandishes the jeweled tip at me brimming with confidence, but I merely scoff at his demeanor and pull out my own staff. I raise my left hand in front of my face and tilt it so he can see the battle-ready frenzied look in my eyes. "You must be pretty confident now if you think you can conquer a god. Fine, I accept your challenge, and I will have you off that throne and freed from the 'Midnight Channels' influence in no time Mallow!"

The Would-Be King In the Sky: Shadow Mallow

This would be a battle of spells, since close-ranged attacks would just get me fried to a crisp by one of Mallow's lightning based moves. I started off by holding my staff forward, the top glowing with a pale blue aura before water launches out from a ring behind me in the form of a spiraling serpent. The beast launches itself at Mallow, who takes his staff without removing his position from the throne and points it at my attack. With the glow of his own jewel the room is filled with the crackle of thunder, and a flash of light heralds the thrust of lightning straight through the room.

The bolt pierces the mouth of the water serpent, tearing it apart bit by bit as it makes its way towards me. I notice this halfway through the piercing motion, jumping out of the way as it crashes into the floor and breaks it apart. The ensuing plume of dust and the cloud of smoke don't affect me as I take my staff and swing it in a circle in front of my body, moving it closer inward towards the center point until a perfect spiral is created. From this I draw forth a typhoon that rips apart the ground and bits of the ceiling on its way to charge towards Mallow.

The smoke is dispersed in various directions before it is sucked in, but with his vision cleared the cloud Prince takes his staff once more and shows no fear at my next attack as he casually swings his magical weapon and summons forth a wall of thick lightning to absorb the brunt of my attack. A little water splashes off of the sides of his powerful defense, splattering against the wall behind him and sticking to it with relative ease. While Mallow's "Shadow" is busy waiting for my onslaught to end, I command that very water behind his sight to pull away and heat up, turning themselves into miniature needles that rain down at the Nimbusian Prince.

To my surprise the needles strike his fluffy skin, puncturing right through it and causing his eyes to remove themselves from their stoic state for just a moment. The holes left in his body heal up, as expected from someone with a cloudy form, but his concentration is parted from his lightning wall long enough for me swing my staff downward in the air and cause a gelatin-like liquid tendril to spew out from the jeweled tip and come crashing down on top of Mallow. The ensuing collision with the seat of the throne after passing through his body causes the entire thing to be flung apart in separate sections, each one splattering against a different part of the walls on both sides of the room.

Having closed his eyelids, Mallow creaks them open slightly, slanting his brows in mild annoyance even as his body is dripping wet. He doesn't say anything as he elevates his arm into the air and casts another spell with incredible vigor. The air swirls around in two locations on the ground, building up in size with each passing second until they take on the form of gigantic tornadoes whose tops grind away at the stones holding the ceiling together. The violent rotations pull away all the water and debris present in the room, winding their forms back and forth to keep me from ever approaching their master.

I now had to deal with the tornadoes, all the while Mallow's "Shadow" stared at me with his hollow yellow eyes and his smug grin. "You think this is enough to stop me? We dealt with much worse when we fought the Storm Emperor in this very room!" I bravely proclaimed to try and knock some sense into the Nimbusian Prince, especially since Luigi proved that it was possible to draw out the real selves of the possessed for a brief amount of time. But Mallow just continued to look at me and lifted his upper lip to smirk, saying, "How can you say 'We' when you were knocked unconscious almost the entire battle? All you did during our journey was fall to the floor and prove to us that you were useless when it came to anything."

The "Shadow's" comment struck a deep nerve, causing me to freeze in place as the violent winds whistle into my eardrums. "Excuse me?" I looked on and shook my head in awestruck disbelief. "Did you really just say that? Because last I checked, were it not for you, you and everyone else would've been dead at the bottom of the Terra Cave." My blunt rebuttal actually got through to Mallow, who widened his eyes in regret for what he just said for five seconds, only to return to the previous expression without a hint of remorse. "So what? One petty incident doesn't excuse the other instances of your uselessness."

"Ok, that comment crossed the line…" I thought to myself with my eyebrows arched in angered annoyance. "Petty incide-You know, I got something to say to you Shadow Mallow!" I holstered my staff for a moment and brandished my right pointer finger at the arrogant "Shadow", caring little about the danger the tornadoes presented to me. "I'm sick and tired of everyone bringing up how useless I supposedly was as if that was a strike against me as far as my character goes! So maybe I fell in fights too easily near the end, but I suffered my fair share of guilt over that already! One's strength in battle is not the only deciding factor in someone's usefulness, and if you are citing that as the only reason then I am VERY disappointed in you!"

As Mallow's Shadow scowled at me from behind the shroud of violent winds his appearance fizzled between that of his current appearance and that of the Mallow I was familiar with. "Lest you forget, it was my determination that saved you from death, it was my empathy that helped Driad endure the struggle with his identity, and it was my kindness that allowed you to trust me in the first place! And you know, pardon the badly timed pun here, but your argument about my strength holds no water now! You claim to have the confidence and strength needed to make the world yours? Well I have the confidence and strength necessary to not only stop your insane plans, but to free Plit from the grasp of the 'Midnight Channel' and Mr. Reality no matter what strange, unknown phenomena he chooses to send my way!"

At the end of my bravado driven speech the "Shadow's" image starts to fizzle out, and for a brief moment I hear a familiar voice take over and call out to me, saying, "YEAH! YOU TELL HIM!" It was the real Mallow, crawling out from the subconscious the "Midnight Channel" had buried him under to give me a rousing cheer until the "Shadow" took back control of Mallow's body with his left hand slammed against the front of his face as it grimaces in utter rage. "You insolent abnormality of an existence!" He yells out to his physical self, which is grating to hear considering the innocent tone he still has in his voice.

While the "true" self of the young prince was distracted with the breakthrough of his physical body, I took an opportunity to weight my options here. The tornadoes were still up despite the creator's focus being broken away from them, but I figured that I could use them to me advantage. The "Shadow" stayed on the throne because all I needed to do was strike the seat to release the energy and return everything in this area back to normal, so all I needed to do was get him off it long enough to plunge my trident straight at it. Mallow's body was pretty squishy, so a strong enough attack that overrode the tornadoes consistent rotation would probably cause the "Shadow" to get out of the way.

"Hey Mallow, I got a present for you!" I stopped thinking and called out to the "Shadow", who stopped focusing on the presence of his physical self and lowered his arm to look at me. I plucked my trident straight from my belt, letting it flip around in the air without my hand to grasp it as I leapt up and spun around, preparing to land with my left foot as my right one thrust itself right into the handle of my pointed weapon. The "Shadow" actually widened its eyes in fear as it launched itself straight at him like a bullet. It broke through the suction of the tornadoes for but a brief second before it is forcibly dragged in and brought to the top of the force of wind a short time later.

The "Shadow" of Mallow relaxed and returns to an arrogant smirk, but I merely matched his smirk with a confident one of my own and raised both of my arms beside my body. I dragged out all of the moisture that had been sucked into the tornadoes, commanding them to build up behind me until it created a massive wall of wall that barely fit into the tight dimensions of this room. "Let us see if your tornadoes can handle a tidal wave." Keeping my arms the way they were, I spread apart the water directly behind me to create a gap big enough for the water to pass around me as I willed it all to rush forward.

The condensed wave pressed against the rotating winds, the top attempting to crash through the gap between them to strike Mallow only for the water to be sucked in slowly without any effort. But my efforts still managed two things. One, it unhinged the "Shadow", who for a moment actually believed that he would be hit with the tidal waves. And two, by striking the tornadoes with the waves in the opposite direction that they are rotating, I succeeded in slowing down their movements. My water supply was still available to me, but I took less out this time, transferring some of it into my trident with just a thought.

I rushed the creation of another tidal wave so Mallow wouldn't be given enough time to react, and after sending it out on its way I repeated the process anew a couple more times. By that point though my next tidal wave was only half its original size, but that would be enough to stop the tornadoes this time around. However, I noticed the perceptive glare coming from the "Shadow", who in a panic raises his staff high above his head and says, "I will not be dethroned by the likes of you!" The jewel on his staff glows as bright as it possibly can at his furious command, filling the room with a pale crimson veil that actually forces me to shut my eyelids to avoid being blinded.

I open them only when I feeling a tremor in the room. Something was pressing down on top of me, a force of unknown origin that I could feel approaching from the ceiling. I looked up and saw as bit by bit the rocks were being torn away into the sky, and behind the holes made by their removal I witnessed a massive, five-point yellow star slowly approaching the temple, having passed through a rift in the dimensions to arrive here. Gravity was weighing down on me, but did nothing to affect Mallow's Shadow, who continues to sit on his throne and began laughing maniacally at my dilemma.

"A tidal wave may be able to stop a tornado, but nothing in your current arsenal can stop a falling star!" He wasn't arrogantly boasting this time either, he was telling the truth. But in all honesty, I didn't care at all about that. The pieces were already in place all around me, and all I needed to do was set them in motion. First off, I tossed the tidal wave out to get the remaining water into the tornado while at the same time distracting the "Shadow" by morphing my expression so it looked as though I was making a desperate move. He mocked me, saying "All you do from here on out is futile. I can survive my own attack, but you are destined to perish here!"

I didn't listen to him, keeping myself calm as the water was sucked into the tornadoes for the final time and the phenomena was slowed to the lowest speed it could reach before it would stop existing completely. The ceiling close to the two natural disasters was starting to break apart, and if the one with the trident in it vanished then the "Shadow's" claim would come to pass. I surrounded the trident with condensed water, Mallow's view of my weapon obscured thanks to all the debris wrapped up around it. I waited a couple seconds for the trident to point in the right direction as the pressure from the star caused me to start kneeling down.

I grit my teeth to keep myself together, bearing the gravitational force coming down upon me as I widened my eyes, smirked, and with my hands held out in front of my chest I declared "Checkmate!" with much vigor. Mallow could only mutter out a "Huh?" as he looked to the left tornado and saw a familiar serpent made of water bursting through the windy spiral and heading straight at him with vicious intent surrounding it. He actually looked ready to lose his composure as he leaped into the air, yelling out to me, "You thought you could surprise me with one last attack Overlord?!"

"Not really…" I said with calm confidence. "But I knew that I would be able to trick you off your throne." Before Mallow's Shadow could even realize what I had just done, the trident that had been hidden inside of the serpent breaks through the surrounding water and flies straight into the crack on the seat of the throne. Puncturing through it with great force, my weapon causes a blinding white light to erupt through in the form of multiple, different sized beams before it consumes the room entirely in its brightened glory. The last thing I hear from the "Shadow" is an aggressive, defeated "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" before everything goes completely silent.

I open my eyelids only a few moments later, when the feeling of the star's pressure has vanished entirely from existence. I am still kneeling, but now I am back in my normal form with my sword grasped in my right hand and the white trigger now restored. Thanks to the blade obscuring my frontal vision, I did not know what had happened to Mallow until I dispelled my weapon. When I stood up I found the young prince lying on the throne, exhausted and unconscious. This wasn't going to be like Luigi's situation, he needed to get to a safe place to rest and recover…

As I began worrying about my friend's condition, something strange began to occur around me. The temple's entire structure faded into a foggy-like condition for a brief second, repeating this distorted appearance a few more times and lasting longer with each occurrence. The Sky Temple was returning to its normal state of being, and since it wasn't noon that meant it would become ethereal. The widening of my eyes after that thought showed that I knew of the consequences that would happen if I didn't hurry up and leave with Mallow. But I was too late to act. By the time I took even a step forward the temple vanished all at once, the young Prince's body plummeting downwards at a rapid pace in front of my own much to my shock and horror.

"Mallow…Darn it, not again!" I tried to reach out, but my arm was not in range. I was panicking, not wanting to lose a friend to a fall after I worked so hard to rescue them from the effects of the 'Midnight Channel'. But amidst the tranquility of the light-blue skies and fluffy clouds I was able to calm myself and remember something very important that I had theorized earlier on. I closed my eyelids and concentrated on the air around me. I imagined the freedom the birds shared with each in the skies, and how I once longed to join them in their flight.

It was a simple, peaceful thought, but sure enough as I opened my eyelids I stopped feeling the friction of the air pressing against my descending body and found myself floating mid-air. My power of flight had been restored, but now was not the time to be happy over this return. Mallow was still in danger, and without any hesitation I looked down at his plummeting body and dived straight at it. At my speeds I was able to catch up to his light body quickly, but dove down a little more and swooped upwards so I could hold my arms out in front of me and catch him as I ascended back towards the restored Nimbus Land. My heart was beating rapidly, but I was just glad to have successfully rescued the sleeping prince from harm. "To think I'm almost halfway there…And things are just getting worse and worse now…" I thought to myself as I bent my head downward and looked at the peaceful, smiling face Mallow had on him…

Next Time: A Meeting with Royalt