Chapter 20: This Is Your Own Life

I just wanted to get away from them, my supposed "friends" who injured my trust in them greatly by refusing to reveal the truth about my identity until just recently. I just couldn't believe that every last one of them led me along like that, playing along with the whole "amnesia" theory that Luigi had suggested until the truth blew up in their faces. That's all I thought about for a while as I flew through the air towards the sandy landscapes of the desert beyond Moleville. I didn't feel any guilt about how I reacted to the other's deceit. I didn't even feel guilt about how I reacted to Driad's innocent plea, since I believe that it was nothing more than a last ditch attempt to make himself look better amongst the others.

"I guess the only consolation to all this is that I can still trust Geno, Alpha and Mario, since I'm positive that none of them are in on this secret given the circumstances…" And this was a good thing, since I was on my way to rescue the Star Herald from the 'Midnight Channel' right now, and then I'd have someone to confide to about my predicament. I didn't know how long I had been flying for, but it didn't take a genius to see the tell-tale signs that I was nearing my destination. A quick look at the ground allowed me to see the monochrome split between the real world and the realm of paranormal origin.

I moved my body upright and kicked my feet against the air to slow myself down, swinging my right arm out to the side and drawing my sword from nowhere and tugging the yellow trigger just as my body began to phase into the invisible shroud that cuts off the two parts of the world. The clouds above burst with the claps of the thunder as a bolt of blue lightning comes down from above and smites me straight through. It does no harm to me though, instead putting me into my next form within the span of a second. The color of my vision has changed to a darkish green thanks to the visor attached to the helmet that now has been put onto my head.

I could feel the clink of metal as I moved my armored limbs around, placing my left hand against my hip as I raised my newly formed dark yellow sniper rifle in front of my face, using the visor's analysis capabilities to check the schematics to make sure that everything was in working order. "Electricity generator at 100% capacity, barrel is intact, and the trigger is greased and ready to fire…" With but a thought I cause the barrel to retract into the rest of the gun, leaving it in a compact form that I quickly holster onto my belt. As you can imagine, I'm currently decked out in a metallic commando suit, but contrary to most other armors mine is made out of black and yellow hardened lightning.

I have black latex gloves on in this form so I don't burn my hands every time I fire a shot from my weapon. My hair and eyes have become yellow and are covered by the visor along with my nose. As I was busy noting the details of my appearance I scanned the town below for signs of life. I locked on to each and every hut, performing scans for heat signatures or pulses only to come up with nothing on either end. This was bothersome, especially considering what happened before at Nimus Land. "Then again, if they simply became zombies, that would easily explain why neither of my scanners are working…" I folded my arms in front of my chest, thought about my theory for a few seconds, and after a disgruntled mumble I changed my line of thinking towards another problem.

"This temple is going to be really annoying, I just know it…" I thought to myself before I moved my arms outward and snapped my fingers so a light spark gets created and levitates gently above my extended right palm. "I like this form, I really do…" I said with awe-inspired honesty, but after a few seconds of reflecting upon the majesty of electricity I squeezed my fingers together and crushed the spark between them, lifting my head up and glaring out towards the desert and stating with weightiness in my voice "But effective against the Earth element, it is not…" Rocks and wood don't conduct electricity after all, and Geno will more than likely be using rocks for his attacks while his body will absorb the brunt of my blows. That's not even getting into the outer guardian, whose identity I don't even know.

"Time to get moving…" I began to fly through the air, moving myself closer to the ground as I kept my scanners running so I don't get jumped on by some unknown creature. However, another scanner on my visor begins to pick up another energy source from the ground. "Warning, tachyon-" Suddenly, a flash of light completely overtakes my body, and in an instance I'm on my feet somewhere in the middle of the desert, where my armor finishes speaking "-particles detected." Once again, it wasn't hard to figure out what was causing my visor to go off the way it was. Detecting a faint, familiar presence behind me, I turn around and find the Chronicler standing on a mound of sand, his robe being bombarded by the many grains that the wind has chosen to churn up.

"You again…" I was confused. The tachyon particles were what originally alerted Mr. Reality of the Chronicler's presence, and yet here he is, using them once more without an apparent care in the world. Still, even amidst my confusion I was really glad to see him again, since now I could apologize for my embittered departure yesterday. "Listen, I'm really sorry for-" As I nervously glanced away from the Chronicler and began to slowly piece together an act of contrition, the being raises his left hand out from the corner of his eye and takes his pointer finger in front of his mouth, letting out a quiet "Shhh…" to silence me mid-sentence.

I look back towards him and as my visor adjusts to the sandstorm to give me a clearer look at the Chronicler's body he folds his arms together through the sleeves of his robe and he slowly begins to walk towards me. "Its fine…I stuck around long enough after our conversation to see you recover from your anger. You have made me proud, young Overlord, and I do not need your apology because of that." It was fine and dandy that Chronicler so easily forgave me, but that didn't rid me of my guilty entirely. As the being stopped six feet away from my body I could see him peering into my guilt-ridden eyes through the shroud of his hood, and I nervously shifted my gaze to the right.

"Your forgiveness doesn't make my reaction to your tale justified…" "I'm not expecting you to look for justification child, but rather for you to understand my feelings on your behavior…" The Chronicler was kind in his response, but I was still feeling somewhat somber. This mood of mine did not escape the being's gaze even though my demeanor was hidden behind the armor I wore. "But I can tell that you are not perturbed by merely that tale anymore. Speak, we have plenty of time before I am targeted again." "Its just that…" I was a bit hesitant, simply because I didn't know where to begin. The problem didn't just lie on one factor, after all.

"Well, how can I even begin to understand why you feel the way you do when I don't even understand who I am? I always thought I was me, only to find out that my true identity could quite possibly be that of someone else…And even worse is the fact that my supposed 'friends' knew the truth about who I am and kept it a secret from me until they had no choice but to reveal it. So not only am I suffering an identity crisis, I feel absolutely betrayed, and I don't even know why I'm bothering to continue this stupid journey when I'm not even the person Mr. Reality wanted to play his game in the first place." I folded my arms in front of my chest, leaning forward as I could feel depression sinking deeper into me and my confidence began to slip away.

I didn't even feel like sighing in grief, because that would just be a wasted effort. All the while the Chronicler looked at me, humming to himself in eerie intrigue. "I think you are mistaken on all fronts, young Overlord. First off, you are angry at your friends for hiding the truth from you, but if I'm not mistaken did you not hide the truth about me from them until just recently?" I didn't understand what the Chronicler was getting at as he calmly began to rebuttal my points, but I still had a definitive answer to his question, which I showed with a simple nod of the head. "Now think for a moment…Why did you do that?"

"…Because it was for your own good." I hesitantly gave an answer, and though it was a little hard to admit at first I could see what the Chronicler was getting at. "Exactly. And it can only be assumed that your friends kept the truth away for your own good as well. Is it really so bad that they did that though? They didn't know you well enough, you were someone completely different from the boy they once knew, and thus they had no idea as to how you would react to the truth. They saw how happy you were around them, and continued to keep the truth away until you began to have concerns about your identity upon hearing the most recent part of my tale. So it wasn't a betrayal so much as they lacked the ability to understand how to handle such a delicate situation. Now, its up to you to decide how to handle your interactions with them from here on out, but don't you think you at least owe them an apology for storming off on them the way you did?"

I listened to the Chronicler until the very end, realizing more and more as each sentence was spoken that he was far too right about how everyone involved handled the truth about my identity. I overreacted when they had a legitimate reason for not telling me, but they just didn't know how to deal with it in the first place. However, even with my greater understanding of the "why", I still had no idea about the "who", as in "Who am I really?" "…I just don't get it though. I can't be this 'Alex Whiter' person, I don't believe it, I just refuse to deny what my heart is telling me to believe…So why is it that most of my memories match up with what you said in…Your…Tale…" I slowed down near the end of that sentence as I began to realize the cold hard truth about the Chronicler's tale.

My eyes widened, my mouth left slightly agape as I turned my gaze towards the Chronicler and felt my heart pounding slowly against my chest. "You were never telling my tale, were you? All this time, that was Alex Whiter's story, wasn't it?" The Chronicler's response was but a mere nod. It all made sense now. The discrepancy between his life and my memories, the similarities in appearance between me and the statue that was probably of him, the fact that Florence knew me even though I had never met him before…There was only one possible answer that could explain all of this, and that was that I am a clo- "No, wait…" I stopped myself from finishing that line of thinking, especially since I didn't want to get myself worked up again until I for certain heard the truth.

"Chronicler…Please, I have to know the truth. What is my connection to Alex Whiter? Why do I have his memories, why can I use the powers of the Elemental Overlord, and why do I have his appearance?" I asked without showing any desperation. I wanted to let the Chronicler know that I would be able to handle the truth no matter how shocking or obvious it may be. "…Very well. I think the time has truly come for you to learn the truth about your identity. But an origin cannot be fully explained without a prelude to that very event. You know everything about the journey Alex Whiter took to become the new Elemental Overlord, but what you don't know is that it did not simply end with him touching the Genesis Orb…No, there was still one more obstacle that the young Overlord had to overcome before he was truly home free…"

"It all began at the beginning of the journey, not long after the events of the Nature Castle had unfolded. The boy named Alex Whiter was walking around Toad Town, trying to find Driad after he had ran off somewhere. But from out of nowhere, HE appeared. A boy by the name of Joe Dark, whose age was exactly the same as Alex's. He was a broken child, driven by an insane vendetta to deliver vengeance upon the boy he continuously called by his last name. His rage and unholy desires drove him to great extremes, such as teaming up with the monstrous witch Cackletta and accepting the spirit of the Dark King into his body, which in turn forced him to inherit his legacy."

"After many other encounters and one in particular where the group assumed that he was killed for good, he made his reappearance in the Origin Temple at the apex of the journey, declaring his intentions to absorb the Elemental Overlord's powers as well and destroy Alex Whiter and the people who have defended him with his newfound omnipotence. The other heroes forced him to the roof, giving Alex enough time to accept the Elemental Overlord's powers and confront Joe Dark on his own. But the boy's determination to deliver what he believed to be justice allowed him to keep trudging on through everything thrown at him, and one by one the heroes fell unconscious before his ever increasing might. Even with the power of the Genesis Samurais infused within him, Alex Whiter could not handle the Dark King himself when he took over Joe Dark's body."

"However, the boy's conviction still proved to be more vile and powerful than the Dark King could ever hope to contain, and his spirit was subdued with absolute ease, leaving Joe Dark in a form that one could easily say was the epitome of darkness incarnate. It was only with the desires and dreams of the entire planet that Alex Whiter was able to rise again and achieve his ultimate form, entering combat with Joe Dark for the final time above the skies of the Origin Temple as the planet below was bombarded with the destructive influences the Dark King left behind."

"It wasn't long though until the truth about Joe Dark's vengeful desires emerged. His parents were slaughtered by an unknown assassin alongside everyone else in his entire family, and he blamed Whiter for the fact that the F.B.I. focused more on him than they did on bringing the murderer to justice. It was then that Alex remembered what the Chief had said, and that Joe Dark was wronged by the very same man who casually admitted his desire to kill Whiter's parents to get him under his thrall. However, while he could sympathize with Joe Dark for his loss, he did not approve of the extremes that he was going through to kill people completely unrelated to that loss."

"Enraged that Whiter did not understand, and that everything in the universe seemed to be conspiring to stop what he believed to be his righteous justice, Joe Dark began to charge up an attack that would destroy Plit and everyone on it. Alex had no choice at that point. He didn't want to kill Joe Dark, especially since he saw so many eerie similarities to himself in him, but now that the Dark King was devoid of all reason there was no way to talk him out of his enraged stupor. Using the full power of the spirit infused within his body, Alex Whiter used the 'Blazing Overlord Fist' to not only destroy Joe Dark's body, but to also incinerate the Dark King's spirit and destroy the Origin Temple as well."

"After E. Gadd made a glove that contained the raging flames of the 'Blazing Overlord Fist' into Alex's right hand, the boy had to deal with a conflict of agendas. He wanted to go back to Earth and use his newfound powers to kill the Chief of the F.B.I. to avenge not only Joe Dark's family, but to get revenge for the time he was tortured as well. However, if he were to do that, then he would end up having to fight against the entire world as well. He couldn't just leave the Earth the way things were now though, but at the same time he wanted to stay on Plit in case any remnants of the Dark King's army chose to make their presence known. Plus, he wanted to be with the friends he had made across this journey."

"That's when the Elemental Overlord gave him a solution. As Alex Whiter returned to Earth through the Stargadd, the Overlord's spirit revealed that as the new Overlord Alex would be able to create full, sentient clones of himself. This clone would have whatever features Alex wished for him to have, but even though he would have the Elemental forms and the Phoenix Form, he wouldn't be able to perform the 'Blazing Overlord Fist' or carry within him the spirits of the Genesis Samurais, Inner Guardians and the original Elemental Overlord. So once he returned home, the boy began to work on his clone…"

"The first thing he did was make it so his memories would be altered so it would be as if Joe Dark and the torture he endured in the F.B.I.'s base had never occurred in his life. This was to devoid the clone of any trauma and buried rage so he could live a truly peaceful life without ever worrying about revenge. He also changed his appearance so the F.B.I. Chief would be incapable of identifying him, making it so the clone would also choose their own name upon their full appearance in the material plain. Alex did everything he could to make sure that his clone would never suffer through the burdens he had to carry, and once the body had materialized he left back to Plit without a trace…"

The Chronicler ended his tale, revealing the truth that I had just realized in my heart. I was Alex Whiter's clone, given my own memories, personality and name…But as I raised my right hand into the air in front of my face, I did not see it as my own, but just a mere copy of the original's. "So I'm just a replica of the real deal…All those memories, everything I thought I had done to gain my powers, none of its real…This body was created because of Alex Whiter's hard work, not because I was birthed from my 'mother's' womb…I'm nothing." As I continued to give my hand an empty, somber glare, the Chronicler groaned and said in an annoyed tone of voice "Please tell me you are joking…"

"Huh?" I lifted my head up while responding in a depressed tone of voice, where the Chronicler then brandished his left pointer finger out at me through the sleeve of his robe. "I didn't tell you all that just so you could start angsting about your existence. Why do you think I went through all the trouble of explaining in excruciating detail as to why you are the way you are? It doesn't matter that you are Alex Whiter's clone. He went through great, mental lengths to make sure that you would not have to remember the same pain he had kept buried deep down in his heart. He didn't create you to continue a legacy or continue a futile cycle of violence and vengeance, but to be your own person and live a life that he would never have had the chance to live so long as the Chief existed."

"Your memories may have been altered, but that doesn't mean that you haven't and can't still make new, wonderful, joyous memories that are yours and yours alone. You have the freedom to be your own person, you were given the chance to deliver happiness in a world that is unaware of its own sufferings, and you should consider yourself lucky to have friends that were concerned enough about the truth of your identity that they were willing to keep that hidden just so they could get to know you for who you really are. Your body may share similarities to Alex Whiter's, but your mind, soul, choices and life are yours and yours alone, and the only one who can pull the trigger that kills the joy you experience from that freedom is you, Mewmaster."

"This is your life, your story, your history…And no one can write the epilogue but you. So what is it going to be, young Overlord?" Slowly but surely I moved my hand away from my face as the Chronicler continued to prove with every word that my fevered concerns were useless in the face of the truth. I AM me, forever and always. That's who I am, that's what I've always believed deep down, and being a clone doesn't mean that I should be so easily overcome with angst. I tightly clasp my hand into the shape of a fist, rising firmly and proudly until I glared out into the horizon with brimming confidence. "Stand tall…Stand up…Stand strong…"

I almost felt like crying as I said those words, but whether it was from the sand blowing underneath my visor and into my eyes or it was because I felt a bundle of optimism welling up inside me was something I was unable to figure out. "That's the spirit, young Overlord…" The Chronicler said, his voice growing tired as he leaned forward and looked ready to collapse on the sandy floor. Out of surprise and concern for his condition, I quickly reacted and thrust my right arm outward to prepare and dive to catch him, but he merely caught himself and held his left hand out to assure me that he was alright.

"Are you ok?" I swiftly ask in a concerned tone of voice. "Sorry…It seems as though that abomination did more damage to me than I had originally thought…" Even though he was speaking of the grievous harm that Mr. Reality's creatures had done to him, the Chronicler took it all in stride and grinned through the shroud of his robe. I didn't bother to offer my assistance, since we already had this conversation before. However, even with everything that has transpired here in our conversation, I now had one pressing question on my mind. "Chronicler…If Alex Whiter returned to Plit, then what exactly happened to him?" By the time I had asked that question though and blinked just once, the Chronicler was gone once more, leaving me to stare blankly into the distance, alone yet again in the midst of the 'Midnight Channel'-infused Plit.

But, it wasn't so bad this time around. I felt confident, renewed like never before, and ready to tackle everything else that Mr. Reality wished to send my way. I've probably stated that enough times honestly, but this would truly be the last time I would have to repeat myself. "My name is Mewmaster…" I reminded myself of what my name was, the thing I created for myself all on my own without Alex's influence telling me to choose otherwise. "I'm the Elemental Overlord…" That's my title, and I carried it as my own even if there existed another who goes by it. "I am the real me, that's all I need to be." With a rhyme to end off everything else, I nodded my head happily and turned back around.

Through the sandstorm I saw an outline calling out to me from beyond the shroud of grains. I walked towards it, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I was staring into the mouth of a cave, which is surrounded by a circular ring of blackened rocks that rests against the side of a sandy hill. I could see the top of a ladder sticking out from the bottom of the lip. The sandstorm began to fade out, leaving me a clear view of the landscape between where I stood and where I wished to go. But I could feel a disruption in the ground, a slight tremor that moved from one part of the desert to another, edging closer below my feet until it bulged the sand below my feet and made me rise slightly into the air.

I kept my balance, pulling my gun out of my holster and extending the rifle's barrel with a click of the trigger as my scanners detected a life form moving through the ground. It stopped in front of the cave, raising itself through the many grains of sand and parting everything around him nice and slowly. The first thing I see is a small tree topped with a single orange, which will prove to be the smallest part of the creature's body as the bulk of their form pushes aside the layers of sand next. It is a giant brown stone creature with a perfectly curved body, its limbs as thing as twigs even though they both have to support his massive, boulder-like fists. The feet below his belly are shaped like ovals and spread out to the farthest sides of his body. Its black eyes with plus-shaped white pupils are suspended above its mouth, which is open wide with its squared teeth hiding the grayish surfaces behind it.

I recognized the creature as Trunkle, a beast the Mario Bros. bested during their trip to the Beanbean Kingdom. Fitting that it would be the guardian of yet another desert area, and its superior defensive stats made it the perfect creature to guard the entrance to the Terra Cave. I could only wonder though if the Trunkle was responsible for the earthquakes we had felt earlier, but considering how calm the ones he created were I quickly discarded that notion and figured that whatever was going on in the inner guardian chamber was responsible for the tremors. I took my weapon and pointed it at the creature as it opens it jaw wide and roared at me, rippling the sounds with the air from its breath while I cocked my rifle and prepared for battle. \

The Sapling Grown from the Tremors: Earthshaker Trunkle

I fired a test shot, hitting the Trunkle straight in the belly with a small electrical bolt to see how it would react. It didn't even flinch as the tip of the bolt collided with the rocky surface and fizzled away into nothing. "Figures…" I dully noted as I pulled my weapon and leaped to the left to dodge a boulder that the creature rolled at me by disconnecting one of its fists from its arm. Once the fist regrows Trunkle leaps into the air with surprising ease considering its girth, flipping itself once to propel itself forward with its weight until it is right above me, letting gravity take hold and plummeting towards me at great speeds.

With a mental command though, I activate the boosters on the soles of my feet and slant them so I fly backwards away from the shadow of his massive body. The creature slams into the floor with enough force to impact the ground and cause the sand to rise up high as a giant, circular wall that pushes itself around in all directions, widening its expanse at the cost of its height with each passing second. In fact, it was moving faster than I was, and unless I did something I would be buried under the sand in this bulky armor and either suffocate or be crushed in the next blow. I holstered my weapon after retracting the barrel, thrusting my right arm in front of my face and bracing it by the elbow with my left hand.

Electricity surged through my arm until it reached the gauntlet, and with just a simple pull back a cylindrical blast of lightning thrusts itself past the armored knuckles. It pierces the sand wall with its intense heat, turning it to glass instantly. I pulled my arms down to the side of my body and shut off the boosters as I leaped into the air and moved my body until I was horizontal in the air, moving my legs backwards before thrusting them outright and kicking right into the front of the grass, shattering it all into many pieces that are dragged into the remainder of the wall or they fall into the sand below my flying body.

Some of the grains pitter against my armor before slipping off, and I keep my mouth shut so none of them enter through there. While in mid-air, I snap my right fingers and create a rectangle plate of electricity that I attach my feet to magnetically. With it I swerved my entire body upward in an arch via the plate, bending my head forward as far as I can to see what Trunkle is doing at this moment until my feet are on the ground once more and I can remove the plate from them. The mineral menace throws another boulder at me while I'm stuck in place, but I brace myself for impact by raising my arms in front of my face and kneeling against the ground.

The boulder collides with my armor, shattering instantly but still causing my body to rumble in this stance as my visor gets static-y for three seconds from the damage I took. "Shoot, armor levels at 87%…That shot took a hefty chunk out of this baby…" I stand back up and cock my right arm at the creature. If I could hit him with a blast from the gauntlet it should actually deal some massive damage. But the moment the electricity begins to surge Trunkle widens his eyes and leaps into the air once more. This time around though I follow him with my gaze and raise my arm, firing just as he reaches the peak before his flip. My shot fires, singing the bottom of his body at the very last second.

I had to get out of the way though, and I didn't want to repeat the same process I did before to avoid the sand shockwave. However, I wanted to leave a gift for my opponent before I took off. With a simple command a compartment opens on the left side of my hip, and out rolls a sphere made of wool that I flip out in front of my left hand casually with my fingers. I then leaped back and kicked my feet against the floor upon contact, firing my boosters and launching myself into the air the very moment Trunkle collides with the sand. I rise above the top of the shockwave and notice that Trunkle managed to plant himself on top of the wool ball I planted beforehand.

He was especially vulnerable underneath thanks to my previous attack, so I decided to crack open the defense by snapping my fingers to cause the wool grenade to react, surging wildly with electricity that courses through Trunkle's body briefly before it all corrodes and detonates in a large electrical explosion that cracks apart the bottom of the mineral menace and launches him high into the air. He spins around, and I focus entirely on the crack that I had created while reeling my right fist back behind me. When he is not only in range but his body is in the proper position, I thrust my punch out like lightning, striking hard into the crack and releasing so much electrical energy that the high voltage detonation launches Trunkle into the ground in the span of a second.

As a massive pillar of sand erupts into the air, I looked past the shroud the grains create and watched as Trunkle suddenly split apart into four smaller versions of itself in a puff of smoke, each one burying itself into the sand until the lumps sink in completely. I was able to keep a lock on them with my life scanner, but then they started speeding through underground at a pace that I was unable to keep track of. They zipped back and forth, obviously in an attempt to confuse me. And it was working too, since I wasn't certain if I was watching all four of the Trunkle clones or if one had slipped away and I was watching the other three take its place currently.

The seismograph on the left side of my visor was rising with each passing second, the plates being continuously disrupted by the Trunkles rampant movements. Even so, I could tell from the shifting of the sands that the quakes were not as intense as the one that struck the Mushroom Kingdom. Be as that may, I still had to stop the Trunkles before they caused irreversible damage to the area's environment. I pulled out my rifle from my holster and drew out the barrel from the rest of the gun, aiming it at the ground and carving out their movements once more in my head so I can predict where they will be by the time my shot reaches them.

However, I hear a quiet rumbling behind me, the ruffling of sand going into my ears as I pause in place and lower my weapon slightly below my face and begin to turn around. Only then am I hit in the back with the full weight of a mini-Trunkle's mid-air charge, which causes my visor to go on the fritz for a much longer period of time than before as I feel my body being pressed against the wind as it moves closer to the ground with each passing second. I collide with the sand face first, but I closed my mouth just in the nick of time to avoid inhaling a ton of it in. The weight of the Trunkle was pressing the armor against my back. Thankfully, this fragment was definitely not as heavy as its larger self, so I was not in danger of being submerged under the sands.

The Trunkle got off of me, but only so another of its selves could dig out of the sand and uppercut me into the air. I go flying, my body spinning around multiple times as I see the sand bursting on both sides of me. I look forward, and as the Trunkle that hit me begins to fall I look into his open mouth and see within it a single fruit. I remember right off the bat that the fruit signifies which one is the real deal, so as I try to gain control of my actions I hold my left hand out and from the gauntlet I fire a miniature tracking beacon into the Trunkle's mouth. Once it slips past the square teeth two more Trunkles come out of the ground and wrap their bodies around both of my arms, weighing me down the very moment my body lays horizontally on the air and dragging me to the ground once more, this time on my back.

After landing on the ground, the Trunkle I marked saw the perfect opportunity to finish me off in one attack now that my head was laid vulnerable against the sand. It leaps into the air, prepared to finish me off with its massive girth. However, while I still had motor functions in my right hand and my weapon was still in its grasp, I was never going to go down. I wiggled my fingers, trying to turn the rifle so the barrel was pointed at the Trunkle. I had ten seconds to fire, but even with the strict time limit I calmly moved my fingers towards the trigger and closed my eyelids to indulge in the absolute focus the blindness would let me have.

I pulled the trigger, sensing the electricity pulsating through the barrel until it shoots out in the form of a concentrated, superheated bullet that zips across the air in straight line and pierces right through the center of the Trunkle's mouth. The shot is so powerful that it causes the copies to vanish, as evidenced by the weightlessness I feel in my arms once more. I open my eyelids and see that the single Trunkle that remains is still falling towards me even though it has a big hole burning through the back of its body. It appears to be alive, a feat that I found to be quite surprising all things considered. It didn't decrease the threat it posed to me, and I quickly got on my feet after spinning myself a few feet to the right to avoid being crushed.

As I get up though, the Trunkle increases back to its normal size, and the tree grows back on top of its head. The hole on its back was healed as well, though I do believe the damage did stick considering how limp his arms looked. "Weakpoint determined, locking on…" My armor said into my ear, and my visor immediately gained a reticule that locked onto the tree that spawned on Trunkle's head. I knew what type of defense the tree had, but with one piercing bolt that would all amount to naught. "Armor is at 52%…And I don't really care…" I cocked my rifle at the beast as it turned to me and roared straight into my face and pounded both of its fist into the ground to cause a brief tremor to try and knock me off my feet.

I stayed firmed and matched the reticule up with the red glowing dot where the Trunkle's weakness was it. I knew Mr. Reality was watching this battle, so I had a message for him before I dealt the final blow. "Hey Mr. Reality…" I began to charge the barrel of my rifle with electricity while it was gripped in one hand and I curled my lips into a cool, confident grin. "My name is Mewmaster. I am the Elemental Overlord, I am the real me and that's all I ever need to be. I won't lose to your game, and once I'm done with the temples…" I pulled the trigger, and a quick bang is followed up by an even quicker electric bullet shooting straight through the trunk of the tree on Trunkle's head. With the plant blown off, the creature's eyes go blank and it swiftly falls on its back, crumbling into pieces even though the ground was ridiculously soft. With my smoking barrel pointed in the air I finish my boast with my eyelids closed and a coy grin on my face "Well, that's pretty much what I'm gonna do to you…" With a shrug of the shoulders to end it off, I let my actions speak for themselves as I retracted the barrel and holstered my weapon.

I turned back towards the cave now that the battle had been finished. I will admit that I did get a bit lucky. There were some organic elements to the Trunkle that I was able to exploit with my powers, but the upcoming battle with Geno won't be so kind to me. But I was ready to face him with all I got. I discarded any further detrimental notions about my identity, keeping to the philosophy that I had created for myself as I walked towards the cave entrance with a confident, relaxed grin on my face. I was thankful to the Chronicler for talking to me, and I would carry those thanks with me for the rest of this journey. With nothing else to think about at the moment, I jumped down past the ladder, using my boosters to slowly descend into the depths of the Terra Cave…

Next Time: Nothing Without Powe