Chapter 31: Fighting the Eight Loyal Kids
"You better not choose to follow me…" Compared to the final words he said during his stint as the Chronicler, Alex's farewell that time left a brutal impression in my mind, the seriousness of his threat making me deeply regret ever telling him that I figured out who he really was as I wandered through the bubbling landscapes of the Nova Cesspool, my body surrounded by an Antarctic chill to counteract the heat around me as I inched closer to the entrance to the Ignitor Cave. All the while I had grasped in my left hand the one thing Alex had left behind accidentally, which was the Gaia Temporis, a mystery relic whose name I've simplified to the "Time Stone" simply because that's what it is, a stone that completely controls the flow of time.
I had chosen to keep it because I believed that Alex wasn't worthy of gazing at it let alone touching it like he had been for the past year. Still, because I wanted to make sure that Mr. Reality wouldn't do something to stop me from using it forever, I quickly tucked the relic back into my armor and went along my merry way without garnering any suspicion from his faraway, watchful eye. At least, that's what I hoped would happen after that action of mine. Only time will tell if I'm right or not, but for now I needed to discard my concerns about Alex and focus on the task at hand. I had no idea how much time I used up being in a conversation with my original, though I imagine that I only have three hours to get through the final temple before the core gets flooded with lava.
"SHUT UP!" Alex's outburst rings in my memories once last time, gravely affecting the beating of my heart for a few seconds before I shake it off and push onward, pulling my lance off of my back after releasing the permafrost that kept it in place. I swing it over my head, lashing the tip against the ground with such force that I create a two-foot tall icicle in the ground that quickly melts away in the unbearable heat. I dragged the tip along the ground, leaving a trail of ice behind me that melts quickly without my attention being focused on it. As I notice the appearance of a black coal cave in the distance, I hear the sound of propellers whirling overhead, causing me to take pause and look up into the sky.
Through the thicket of steam that rises from the ground I see the shape of a familiar ship flying in from the distance, its whirling blades blowing away the steam and allowing me a better look at it from the front. The first thing I notice is the open maw of a stone likeness of the Koopa King Bowser's face. As the wooden ship flips around so its right side is pointed at me along with the three cannons attached to it, eight creatures, all of them having rather distinctive feature, leaps out onto the deck and share in a unified laugh directed at me as seven of them whip out their wands and the youngest one at the front of the seven does a merry jig before standing firm just like his father would in the face of an enemy.
They were the Koopalings and Bowser Junior, Bowser's eight kids who…Wait, hold on a moment here. Yeah, I hate to break the fourth wall after how tense the last chapter was and all, but I have just received word that Miyamoto called the Koopalings "Not Bowser's Kids" so…Umm…This is awkward…Ummm…I guess I'll have to come up with something else here…Umm…Forget it, I'll bring this issue up again three chapters from now, so back to the fight. Anyways, they stare down at me with their eyes blank with a sensation of hypnosis present within them, but instead of launching all of their attacks at me at the same time like I had braced myself in preparation for, only one of them jumps off the ship to face me in combat.
It was the youngest of the seven Koopalings, Larry Koopa. He had the most generic appearance of the seven, what with the only distinct feature being a sky-blue Mohawk. Otherwise, he just looks like a spiked-shell Koopa with a mouth resembling Bowser's but with only two fangs attached to the upper lip. His wand, tipped with an orange jewel, glows brightly with neon squares, circles and triangles flying around in two infinity like loops as the Doomship he jumped off of flies away so I wouldn't target it in the middle of the battle. The fact that the Koopalings were the outer guardians confirmed to me that I would be likely fighting Bowser alongside Mario for the inner guardian fight. That's a problem to deal with later though.
For now, Larry swings his wand through the air, throwing three fireballs at separate intervals my way as his body twirls to follow the motions of his arm. When his back is turned to me he backflips through the air while I deal with the fireballs by swinging my lance with enough of a chill to override their heat. I then look behind me, watching as Larry lands and tucks into his shell, spinning multiple times to build up momentum along the ground before he turns around and heads my way with the intention to trip me up. However, I leap up , spinning around myself and positioning my body in such a way that I am able to dunk my lance into the ground, creating an icy spread that causes Larry's course to be diverted as he slips along the surface, the side of his shell grazing the frozen grip of my lance and placing a layer of ice over his left arm hole.
I then let go, flipping my weapon around in my right hand until its held behind me and my body lands on the ground. I turn around just as Larry's movements become wobbly due to the weight I added to his body and he kicks his legs out of the shell to stand up and thrust his right arm, wand and all, out ready to fight once more as he lands on the ground only two feet away from the cave's entrance. I punch the air with my left fist, the chill surrounding my body swirling to conform to the shape of my hand so it can solidify and launch out in the form of an icy orb aimed at Larry's face. The Koopaling, instead of ducking out of the way, decided instead to turn his wand into a tennis mallet with four orange spikes scattered around it so he can knock my attack back at me with one fell swing.
Gladly obliging to his request for a tennis match in respect for his unique tastes, I took my lance and used it like a one-handed bat, swatting the ice ball back with greater speeds than before. With great reflexes and speed, Larry rushes to the left and dives to swat the projectile back at me, tumbling once to land on the ground ready for the next volley. I hit it back again, but with Larry's eyebrows arched in glorious mischief he swings his racket again, only this time around the net starts burning brightly. What ensues after that is two fireballs trailing beside the icy ball, the Koopaling trying a sneaky trick in order to strike me while I deal with my own projectile.
However, I'm not unwise to such tricks, and quickly swing my body around in a circle with my lance extended out in the grasp of both hands. The tip of the weapon pierces both fireballs while its touch on the ice ball allows me to perform a trick of my own, tripling the projectile's size so it is now larger than the tennis mallet's net can possibly handle. As Larry looks on with his eyes widened in disbelief, the ice ball smashes right into him, breaking apart in a burst of ice shards that dissipates as quickly as you'd expect and the Koopaling is flung into the side of the cave, his body landing on the ground unconscious to signify my victory.
The next Koopaling to leap down from the Doomship is the rather larger Morton Koopa Jr., whose impact with the ground causes the ground to rumble and two pockets of steam to burst out beside him. He is the only one of his siblings with a brown skin tone instead of yellow, and save for a few strands of hair his scalp is entirely bald. His white face is marked with a star on the left eye, and his large shell is black in color. In the grasp of his left hand is a wand with a red jewel tip. He swirls it around above his head, flinging it forward while it is still in his grasp to fire a slow moving bolt of yellow plasma energy my way.
However, I knew how Morton fought. This was a distraction meant to make me focus entirely on the front of my body while he jumps and stomps me from above. Considering his weight, such force applied to the top of my head would be more than enough to kill me, even with all this armor I wore. So while he was moving through the air I quickly pushed my lance forward, flipping it up like a spatula so the underside of the plasma would be hit and the projectile would be launched upward. It collides with Morton's underside, exploding and sending him away a few feet through the air before he had a chance to descend. He lands on the ground behind me, beaten but not quite down.
His own projectile did a lot more damage then I expected it to honestly, but whatever helps move things along is good enough for me. As his smoking body rises up with a push of his hands, Morton gets into his shell and charges at me at a breakneck pace. However, after taking a note from his brother's movements, when I jump into the air Morton too leaps up, smashing straight into the chest plate of my armor and very nearly cracking it with how powerful his blow was. I'm pushed through the air against my will, my lance still in the grasp of my hand as my body nears the top of the cave entrance. With quick thinking, I focus through the pain brought on by my armor being pressed against my chest to hold my left hand towards the ground.
In a matter of seconds, a massive pillar of ice thrusts itself upward, consuming and deep freezing Morton entirely and removing the pressure of his shell away from my body so I'm able to slow down the momentum built up by his charge by kicking my feet and breaking the roof of the cave off while extending the rest of my limbs out and focusing as hard as I can to gain control of my flight. The ice I trapped Morton in thaws out, and he collapses onto the ground after his limbs and head pops out of the shell. Two down, six to go, and I was making good time all things considered. Not that anyone, especially not myself, needed to be reminded of the stakes.
The third Koopaling comes down, following the age pattern to a "T" as the next one that lands is Wendy O. Koopa, the only female amongst Bowser's kids. Unlike most of the other, she doesn't have fangs in her mouth, but rather puffy, feminine lips which match her pink, spotted head bow rather well. She has a red beaded necklace and a yellow ring around both of her wrists, and wears pink high heels that were specifically designed to fit onto her feet. Her wand has a purple jewel, which glows as she begins her part of the fight by launching two swirling, golden rings my way.
As the projectiles come my way she does a few ballet jumps through the air, leaping over the cave and landing straight below me ready to fire more rings my way after a few second casting period. In fact, while my eyes were focused on her movements I nearly forgot about the rings she previous sent my way. Quickly lifting my head up and reacting with the swiftness of a cougar allows me to swing my lance out and freeze the two rings with an arctic breeze just moments before they touched the skin of my face. I had no clue what they would do to me, but I would rather not take the risk of letting them do anything.
The good thing about fighting Wendy was that her rings wouldn't be nearly as effective in an open environment, since there were no walls for them to bounce off of. So while I had to be careful, this situation wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Two more rings came my way as I flew up due to the heat thawing out the other two. Thankfully, all four rings collided in mid-air, diverting their paths in opposite directions so I would never have to worry about them again. While I was as up this high, Wendy has no chance of reaching me, and even threw a bit of a temper tantrum via pounding the ground with a few furious leaps and swinging her arms up and down in rage.
Instead of focusing on her behavior though, it was best for me to take her out quickly and get on to the next Koopaling. So after spinning my lance around in front of me with the flick of the wrist, a smooth, two-inch tall dome of ice rises up underneath Wendy. In a matter of seconds spikes burst out from all sides of the dome, trapping the female Koopaling within them as I constantly lower the temperature of the spikes to keep up with the rising heat of the Nova Cesspool. Having forced Wendy into hibernation from the cold, I allow the prison to melt so her unconscious body can rest upon the ground.
While I lowered my lance from the center of my body and back into the grasp of my right hand, I was quickly struck in the jaw by a powerful punch, my body plummeting into the ground faster than one could blink. I landed on my back after spiraling through the air, my body tearing up the ground and bringing me close to the edge of the area, where a dip into the lava lake would've awaited me if I had gone even a few more inches. With the back of my armor dirtied by the landing, my eyes a little disoriented from the impact, and my jaw stinging from the blow, I steadily picked myself up and watched as the next Koopaling landed on the ground with a more forceful impact than Morton's.
It was Roy Koopa, someone I wasn't expecting to see next considering how I had the order pegged from youngest to oldest and then Bowser Jr. after that. Either way, the Koopaling, despite his buff demeanor, has a pink head and pink sunglasses, and his shell is a rather dark purple color. I guess he acted tough just to show that "real men wear pink" or something like that, not like I'd be able to get an answer out of him even if he was himself. Instead of starting things off with an energy blast or some other unique projectile from his wand, Roy instead raises it into the air and with a puff of magic transforms it into a double-sided bullet bill launcher that despite its imposing size he is able to easily lift in the grasp of his right arm.
He quickly fires a couple Bullet Bills my way after flipping the cannon around so the second barrel can do its thing as well, the living ammunition locking on to me as I could see two glowing reticules appear on my body and quickly realized that dodging was out of the question. With but a thought I caused a series of icicles to erupt from the ground in two separate lines, both of them crawling across the solidified magma until they sprout up underneath the Bullet Bills, impaling through their metallic undersides and causing them to explode and shatter a large portion of both icy trails in the process. This left Roy unaccounted for behind the smoke created from the detonations, and I instantly kept my eye into the air seeing as Roy and Morton fought rather similarly.
However, it was not the air I should've been keeping an eye on, but the ground, for not long after looking up do I feel the floor below me trembling. A shockwave heads my way, created by Roy pounding the ground with his underside. It was as tall as half of my body, but nothing I couldn't dodge with a simple leap. However, Roy was surprisingly ahead of me in my movements as he fired two more bullet bills my way, and with my body briefly suspended in mid-air I didn't have the time to attack them. As I took the full blunt of both shots along with the explosions afterwards, I quickly flung my lance into the air in preparation for another attack, letting myself skid across the air a few feet as the crack that Morton gave in my armor earlier spreads farther out and I brush the upper part of my right gauntlet against my lower lip, spitting a bit of blood towards the ground before grinning confidently without Roy knowing about my actions.
Looking up at my lance, I watch it spin around until its suspended in place while aimed diagonally, its tip pointed at a particular space behind where the buff Koopaling currently stands. I flick my right fingers through the air, sending my weapon downward to its predetermined destination faster than Roy can hope to react to. A loud "Shink!" lets me know that the impact was successful, and with the smoke gone I see and hear the ice crawling up from the ground like a self-building wall, and it consumes both the bullet bill blaster and Roy's right hand in the span of five seconds.
I knew the ice wouldn't last long, as usual, so after cracking my knuckles I pressed my fingers together tightly into the shape of a fist and increased its offensive capabilities by surrounding it with ice. Rushing downward through the air, I land feet first onto the ground mere inches away from Roy's body and quickly thrust an uppercut right into the Koopaling's jaw, essentially paying him back for the cheap blow he flung my way earlier while also breaking the ice around my fist. My strike conveniently matches up with the melting of the ice around his weapon, and as I spin through the air after my rising uppercut I catch brief glimpses of his body flying high into the sky, his blaster falling onto the ground with him landing right on top of it merely a millisecond later. He was unconscious, and I had reached the halfway point of this battle.
The next tone to jump down is Iggy Koopa, the tallest and thinnest of the seven children along with being the craziest amongst them. His light-green hair looks like the top of a pineapple, which matches the insanity of his swirly-eyed glasses. Unlike the other Koopalings, Iggy's wand glows at all times even when he isn't doing anything, the green energy matching the texture of plasma closer than Morton's bolts ever did. Giggling maniacally, Iggy summons a carriage that is pulled by a barking Chain Chomp beside him and leaps on it. With a wave of the wand the creature tugs Iggy across the ground, the Chomp's bloodthirsty eyes looking my way while the Koopaling prepares his wand to fire some blasts my way.
The ground wasn't really safe with the addition of the Chomp, so I flew up to get a better vantage point for attacking, using my mind to pull my lance to me with relative ease and into the grasp of my right hand. However, Iggy doesn't choose to keep himself on the ground like Wendy was forced to, and uses his wand to create a cage of railing that his chariot can be pulled along by the Chomp. But by staying only in the center of the rails, the Chomp was incapable of reaching me, which was something that greatly irritated Iggy as he shot blast after blast my way to no avail due to my swift maneuverability. Not to mention his idea, while nice in concept, is pretty easily countered by someone with my powers.
I kept my eyes on the Koopaling, holding my lance behind me ready to swing out at any energy bolts while thrusting my left palm through the air towards a specific junction on the railing that Iggy's chariot was heading towards in front of me. In an instant that point is frozen completely, the level of thickness in the ice being more than enough to force the chariot to a complete stop as the Chain Chomp ends up jerking forward suddenly and nearly chokes on its on collar. Iggy, upset by my move, quickly points upward with his free hand to get the Chomp to move in that direction while he focuses on me. However, with his next move easily telegraphed I lift my hand up and freeze the next point directly above him, continuing to do this very action to a few other specific points so Iggy is trapped in a designated area of his own rail cage.
As he throws a hysterical fit over the fact that I stopped him from moving, he fails to hear the cracking of steel around him caused by the super cooling and expansion of the air bubbles inside the rails. In a matter of seconds, the section of the cage Iggy is trapped in breaks off, knocking the Koopaling off of his chariot and causing him and the Chain Chomp to plummet helplessly towards the ground. Thankfully, he was heading down shell first, so I did not need to intervene to save his life as he landed on the ground, followed soon after by the back edge of his chariot bonking him on his noggin, which dispels his focus on everything he summoned and causing it to vanish in a puff of ivory smoke.
The next thing to appear in my line of sight wasn't a Koopaling though, but rather a small orange ball with a few orange stars scattered about lands and bounces onto the ground. Landing gracefully onto the top of the all is the smallest yet second oldest of the Koopalings, Lemmy Koopa, whose distinctive features are a rainbow colored Mohawk and a yellow-orange shell. With his green jewel wand in hand, he decides to take advantage of the height brought on by him landing on the ball to push himself forward through the air, defying the laws of physics with the help of his wand's magic so he can get closer to me.
Lemmy isn't really much of a threat though, since as noted in the past he'd rather be in a circus than fight Mario, which is reflected in the fact that unlike his siblings he fires rubber balls out of his wand instead of energy blasts. Of course, considering Mr. Reality's involvement, I don't know what to really expect from the little Koopaling as he bounces close to me and pushes his wand forward with the tip glowing brightly ready to strike. I flip out of the way as Lemmy launches a ball out from the wand, making my earlier concerns valid as I close my eyelids and let out a sigh of relief. However, as I open them up and watch the Koopaling descend he points his wand up and fires an icy blue energy blast that is double the size of the usual variety.
With my eyes widening in shock, the bolt collides straight into my body, consuming it in a burst of energy that damages me but doesn't knock me backwards surprisingly. I clear away the smoke with a swing of my arms and lance, watching as Lemmy bounds across the ground in random points, taunting me with his grin as he refuses to use his wand against me due to how far away he is. His ball was his only advantage against me due to how unpredictable its movements were, so I decided that it had to go, now. With a quick yet accurate throw of my lance, the tip punctures through the rubber edge of the ball, popping it instantly with a loud rupture filling my ears much to my joy and Lemmy's shock.
However, after only a second of his eyes narrowing in surprise, he chuckles while he falls, using his magic to summon another ball that not only cushions his fall but also allows him to bound right up again with relative ease. Since destroying his balls isn't an option considering how easy it is for him to create a new one, with my eyebrows slanted at him in annoyance I decided I would just deep freeze the ball so it would also be forcibly attached to the Koopaling's feet and prevent him from moving out of the way of my follow-up attack. I raised my right hand into the air, calling my lance back with an arched flight above Lemmy's head until the handle is grasped firmly once more and I spin it around while positioning it behind my back.
I then proceed to stick my weapon to my armor with permafrost for the time being, freeing up both of my hands so I can thrust the palms together in front of my chest and glare straight towards where I predicted Lemmy would be again after one more bounce. With deep concentration focused into the center of my palms, I called on the full power of the frost to swirl around into a concentrated ball of energy, launching it outward in the form of an icy spread that would certainly do the job I wanted it to if it connects. However, Lemmy was still full of surprises, and with a flick of his wand he…Converts it into a type of gun…That he points at the ice I sent his way and he proceeds to shoot his own beam of ice to counter it with ease.
As I switch my expression from brief surprise to increased annoyance, I think to myself "Oh come on, that is so non-canon…" At the very least though, the new weapon wouldn't prove to be much of a nuisance despite its out-of-nowhere appearance, since ice was the element that I was currently in control of. With great manipulation of the frost that exists all-around, I lower the temperature of all the bits so it would survive the heat long enough to suit my goals, and with a flick of the wrist and a snap of the fingers the ice completely engulfs Lemmy's ball and wraps around its spherical form until it crawls up to his knees and encapsulates it all in solid ice.
Lemmy falls downward, letting go of his "Freeze Gun" as his body is helpless to save himself from his dire situation. He lands on the ground, his ball shattering into a million shards that quickly melt when exposed to the high temperature. And because he underwent the same momentum that his ball did, Lemmy falls onto the ground with the relatively same impact, his body lying flat against the ground as his weapon drops down and bops him one on the head, surely knocking the poor guy unconscious before it turns back into a wand and plops down beside him.
Next up was the last Koopaling, the oldest and most powerful of the seven Ludwig Von Koopa, who unsurprisingly had a hairstyle similar to that of the famous composer despite more than likely not knowing that he existed. That wasn't the only unique feature on his body though, as the one fang in the center of his mouth surely proved. I saw him leap off of the Doomship, his body falling downward until he saw me right in front of him, at which point he shuffled his feet back and forth much like a Yoshi would to stay in the air while swinging his wand outward to cast four blue-ish fireballs my way.
Now this was actually more of a pain to deal with then everything else thus far, since I couldn't cool my body enough to counteract the temperature of blue flames, and thus would have to dodge them in order to avoid taking damage. So I raised my body up through the air, letting the fireballs fly beneath my feet before I swing my lance out to send a crescent wave of pure ice towards Ludwig. However, the Koopaling stops fluttering and lets gravity take hold so he can fall and avoid the brunt of my attack, which only ends up nicking the top of his head, giving him a whitened streak that looks rather natural considering his hairstyle.
He lands on the ground without tripping himself up, and won't be able to reach me again so long as he stays down there. I figured since this was the last of the Koopalings, I would at least give him the honor of a fairer fight instead of finishing him off with one move then and there. I descended, attaching my lance to my back so I could use just my fists in combat. I cracked my knuckles as Ludwig gazed his eyes upon me, preparing his wand to launch more projectiles at me with a flick of the wrist. I duck and weave past the fireballs as if time was a non-factor, rushing forward and hitting Ludwig straight in the gut with on powerful punch.
But surprisingly, unlike Roy, Ludwig's age gives him a higher level of durability that allows him to take my punch without barely flinching while leaving me in a prime position to be hit be a close-range blast from his wand. As he points the tip right against my forehead, I quickly try and pull myself away upon seeing the glow from the corner of my eye, raising my hands into the air to call forth a thin wall of ice that would slow down the fireballs slightly while I make my body feel weightless and allow the momentum from my hands rising to perform a backflip that allows me to dodge all four projectile. However, Ludwig quickly conjures up another wave that homes in on me while I descend from my jump.
While I had little time to react, it was still more than enough to deal with the fireballs with a brisk snap of the fingers, which suspends me in mid-air and causes an Antarctic glow to surround my body as a frosty gateway opens up before me and draws out hundreds of icy needles that bombard the fireballs to the point that the water created from them melting is enough to turn the incendiary projectiles to ashes. Next up, I landed on the ground and stamped my foot down hard, cracking the ground and sending icicles erupting towards Ludwig. Swift as he is though, he leaps into the air, his feet fluttering just above the spiky tips while he laughs lightly at my attempt to strike him.
He gets above me, his shadow looming around my figure as he prepares to pound down unto me. With my body positioned rather awkwardly, it was a mystery as to how I was able to leap out of the way in time to avoid his impact. He follows up his landing with a quick swing of the wand, which sends out another two waves of fireballs at once, leaving me with no other choice but to whip out my lance with a delicate, arc-shaped swing to puncture the projectiles with the tip in order to stop them mid-flight. While my weapon was still held outright, I lifted it up, swinging it a few times with the careful manipulation of my fingers before impaling it into the ground with enough force that the ground shakes as if a hammer struck it hard.
This brief vibration is followed up by a gigantic pillar of ice erupting from the ground beneath Ludwig, which wraps him up completely in a method similar to how Morton was dealt with. However, the Koopaling was not about to go down as easily as his younger brother, and quickly used his wand to create a wave of heat around him that melts the icy pillar down and gives him another chance to go at me. He leaps down from the uneven platform created by his actions, flinging fireballs my way that continue to make my life difficult as I have to focus more on them than I do him.
Another swing of the lance blows the fireballs apart though, and I step back a few feet in order to avoid getting crushed beneath Ludwig's body. As I swished my left gauntlet in front of my chin, I had to give the Koopaling credit for his cunning, which was the only reason he was lasting longer than his siblings. However, I couldn't keep wasting all this time fighting Ludwig, and would have to deliver a decisive blow soon. I planted my lance onto the back of my armor like usual, and rush forward without any hesitation present in my overly determined pupils. With one quick thrust of my fist I pound Ludwig in the jaw, stunning him so he can't react to the haymaker that connects dead-on to his weakened gut. The combination of blows disperses his flaming aura and knocks the wand right out of his hand as his body is flung fifteen feet away from his current position, the back of his shell colliding and making an indent in a nearby solidified magma formation before he gets disconnected from it and falls to the ground completely defeated.
As I was ready to head on back to the cave, a familiar yet annoying laugh filled the air, and it reminded me that there was still one more kid of Bowser's for me to defeat. Falling down in a miniature version of the Koopa King's Clown Copter is Bowser Junior, who as noted earlier looks…Well, like a miniature version of Bowser. There was a cannon on both sides of his vehicle though, a major difference from his father's work. All the same, I didn't really have the time to waste fighting the kid, so I just casually rolled my eyes and stamped my foot into the ground without looking his way.
In a matter of seconds, a massive pillar of ice ruptures from the ground below the vehicle, hitting it with enough force to send it hurtling through the air, where it collides right through the Doomship and causes it to explode into a million pieces. All I hear is Bowser Jr.'s disgruntled yelp as he becomes a vague twinkle in the sky. "Well…His fight was really that easy in the Wii version…" I rationalized his easy defeat to myself as I looked forward at the backside of the cave entrance and ran over to it, going to the opposite side where the vast gap that invited me to enter awaited. Pulling my lance out into the grasp of my right hand, I entered the cave, only for my body to become consumed by the darkness as I hear a strange suctioning sound that lasts only a second…
Next Time: The Gauntlet of Past Travel