Chapter Forty-Six:

In The Cathedral of Darkness

He stared out the window of SMG3's room, looking upon the Internet Graveyard, and watching the remaining memes as they played. Terrance looked at his phone, he'd tried to call SMG3 a short time ago. Now, he wondered when he would be back.

'I hope you're okay, SMG3.' Terrance thought.

Before he left, SMG3 had asked him to guard his lair, and look after the Internet Graveyard. He'd told him that he wouldn't be very long; just a short visit to the living realm, to see an old enemy.

Well, it had been long. And Terrance was starting to worry, especially as some of the memes were acting up. An Ugandan Knuckles had started spraying SMG3's statue, but Terrance had stopped it. And then, a pair of Egg-Dogs started blowing stuff up near the temple. Terrance managed to drive them away. Even then, it was hard to manage without his master.

Time was complicated, it flowed faster here, and was slower in the other world. It had been an hour since SMG3 left, Terrance dreaded that something had gone wrong; perhaps the memes had become corrupted, and perhaps SMG3 was badly hurt.

"No, no." The Ugandan Knuckles said to himself confidently, "I know the way, I can do this. Just hold out a little longer, make sure the memes here don't do something reckless."

"Oh, my head..."

Mario opened his eyes at last, and rose to his feet. He rubbed his head, feeling disoriented. He noticed that SMG4 and SMG3 were also awake, and they seemed to be very wary; especially of what had happened and where they were now.

He blinked, surveying the large room that the three fat Italians were in; A massive hall, with black walls and pillars, with red linings on them, traces of green code-style symbols on the walls. It looked like some sort of cathedral, or perhaps, a temple. It didn't look very inviting, or friendly. Did the corrupted memes bring them here?

"THE GUYS!" SMG4 cried.

SMG3 glared at him; "Would you calm down? They're probably dead! We need to figure out how to get out of here."

"They're not dead!" SMG4 yelled, "You take that back!"

Just when the two were about to go at each other, Mario spoke up.

"Guys?"

"What?" SMG4 and SMG3 shouted.

Mario pointed, and the three mustached "Italians" stared at what awaited them on the other side of the room. They could see piles of multi-colored overall-clad bodies, resembling Mario, all devoid of life. And then, they saw X and FM, standing upon an altar, and staring up at a large, ominous archway at the tail end of the room.

Whatever they were staring at, whatever was here, it was very obvious that it wasn't going to be friendly. Just then, a bright red light emitted from the archway, flashing around, and then, it looked at X and FM.

Seconds later, the light faded, and something growled. A large blue hand emerged, and grabbed the two friends. It dragged them into the archway, much to the horror of SMG4, Mario and SMG3. A couple more seconds of ominous silence passed, then X and FM were thrown out, all of them lifeless and faceless, with faded mustaches, as they collapsed to the ground.

"X! FM!" SMG4 screamed.

He, Mario and SMG3 froze as that ominous red light lit up again, moving around as it scanned the room, and then, it shone down upon the trio. And, it seemed to stare directly at Mario.

The arm emerged again, extending beyond the altar. Not wanting to suffer the same fate as X and FM, the trio shrieked, and ran for their lives. The arm gave chase, and Mario, SMG4 and their former nemesis darted down a hallway with the walls full of green coding symbols on them.

Hearts were pounding, and sweat was rolling down their foreheads, the gang looked around for a place to hide, a way out of this nightmare. If the arm caught them; it was game over. They could hear it right behind them, the sound of growling. They saw a door close by, and opened it, revealing a great horror; A room full of lifeless Mario recolors.

Filled with shock, they looked into another room, finding almost the same thing. And they could see messages in blood written on the walls, words such as 'Need Life.'

"WHAT IS THIS?" SMG4 cried.

This place was a house of horrors, full of corpses, and a monstrous arm that was about to get them. Was this how this was going to end, was the day of SMG4's ten-year anniversary the day when they finally met their ends?

"MARIO DOESN'T WANT TO DIE!" Mario wailed.

And they could hear the arm getting closer. But, just then, SMG3 had an idea. "Oi!" He said, "Listen, I got an idea..."

He led them inside the room they just discovered, and they hid behind the bodies of Mario recolors. Luckily, the pile was so high, nobody could see them. They heard the arm come by, they saw its shadow, and chills crept up their backs. Mario, SMG4 and SMG3 held their breaths, waiting for it to go by.

One minute passed, and then, the arm faded. And relief washed over them. SMG3 winked at SMG4, and Mario gave off a derp-y look. "I like corpses now!" The fat Italian said with a goofy smile. SMG4 resisted the urge to sigh and face-palm with annoyance.

They climbed their way out of the bodies, and left the room, making their way through the hall, until they found the exit ahead. They ran out the door, setting foot in a new place. The ground was grey, and mist filled the air, and they could see trees without leaves. SMG4 and SMG3 ran several feet from the structure, but Mario stopped to catch his breath.

For a moment, he felt more relief than ever. They could live to see another...

A blue hand grabbed Mario, and the fat Italian screamed. The hand dragged Mario back into the structure, and the door closed. SMG4 and SMG3 screamed with horror and worry for their friend.

"MARIO!" SMG4 cried, "HANG ON! WE'LL GET HELP!"

He and SMG3 ran off, running as far away from the cathedral as they could, knowing that the arm could come for them as well. Hopefully, they could find help in time before something really horrible happened to the spaghetti-loving Italian...