The group had stepped outside of the palace, and before them was a snowy pathway leading up to a large, floating ice platform. They could also get a glimpse of the aurora in the background too. Needless to say, it looked very gorgeous out here.
Up ahead, they spotted Jojora over by the platform.
"There she is!" Chopper noticed.
"I wonder who this king is…" Sonic wondered as they walked up onto the ice platform. They noticed that the northern lights were brighter than before and the sky was certainly a nice color.
"All right, Jojora, can we just settle things in a peaceful manner?" Blade asked.
"Absolutely not! After what you did to my rag doll, you don't deserve it!" Jojora looked up at the northern lights. "KING! KING! COME DOWN HERE QUICK! These jerks here ruined my tea party!"
"And who are these people, you ask?"
"Come take a look! You might recognize them!" Jojora smirked as she turned her head to the group. "Now you're in for it!"
"Very well," Everyone looked up at the aurora as a being in a blue robe came floating down onto the platform. He had no face, nor did he even have a body. All he had were yellow eyes and a crystal crown that was meant to make him look like a king.
"It's you…" Chopper clenched his fists and got in a fighting stance. "How are you still alive?!"
"Welcome to my palace. I am the Crystal King." the king introduced. "
"This is the boss? He has no face!" Blade scoffed.
"It doesn't… Hold on a minute…" the Crystal King didn't have much time to look at the heroes, but when he first took a look at both Chopper and Mario, he felt immense cold-hearted hatred in him. "It's you two… The ones that were responsible for destroying me in the past! Chopper…and Mario!"
"Look, Crystal King… We don't have time to fight you." Chopper said as he swung his arm back. "We need to get the Pure Heart before all dimensions tremble!"
"All dimensions tremble? I don't see them trembling…"
"Tipral wants to make that happen. I think that's what he plans on doing."
"Tipral, you say? You mean the one who entered through the shrine and tried to murder a spirit? He told me you would be coming here, so I waited at this very spot for your arrival!"
Luvbi gasped. "Dost thou mean… Crysta will…die?!"
"Heh heh heh! Maybe she will… I don't know what kind of harm that boy did to her, but surely it should stop you fools from getting the Pure Heart you desire!" the Crystal King grinned sinisterly, but he noticed the necklace on Luvbi.
"What is that you're wearing?!" the Crystal King flew over to Luvbi and held her up to get a closer look. "Where did you get that necklace?!"
"Ack! Let me go, yon horrible monster!" Luvbi cried. "When thy game ends, I will maketh sure that thou art chained to the bottom of River Twygz!"
"Hmmmm... Yes, I recognize this necklace..." the Crystal King trailed, ignoring Luvbi's threats. "This used to belong to my wife. That was, until she had caught a horrible sickness and died... I've been looking for that necklace all my life! Hand it over, or else you'll pay the consequences!"
"Thou knowest about 'finders keepers', dost thou?"
"That is MINE! I deserve to take it back after losing it for so long! I don't care about finders keepers! What belongs to someone should stay with them!"
"Hey, kinh, aren't you going to punish them?" Jojora interrupted.
The Crystal King released Luvbi. "Why… Of course I will. I merely forgot about that. Chopper… I'm going to make you pay dearly for what you've done to me in the past! When you're a frozen popsicle, I'll know just where to put you!"
"We'll see about that! We can take you!" Chopper smirked.
"Just don't be long, Chopper…" Luvbi trailed sadly.
"Oh, how sweet. You really care about your friend! Oh, whatever. I'll just end your games while I'm at it. That should make things better for me!"
"And for me! I'm helping out too!" Jojora twirled her wand and aimed it at the heroes. "My king is a force of nature, so you better watch out!"
The Crystal King fired an ice beam directly at Chopper, resulting in him becoming frozen. "That was easier than I thought it would be!"
"I wouldn't count on that attack being it," Blade gripped his katana and used a fire slash to melt Chopper from his icy prison. The Crystal King nearly gaped, but immediately clenched his invisible fists.
"I see… So this is how it's going to be."
"Yup…and by looking at your stats, you have about 150 HP, an Attack of 10 and a Defense of 4. OK… This might be a bit of a challenge. But, I bet we can take you down with ease…just like before."
"The Crystal King was a lot tougher when we fought him in Bowser's Castle…" Sonic trailed.
"True, that's true…" Chopper jumped toward the Crystal King, but the king himself managed to knock Chopper back when he pulled an ice sword out. It left the antennae hero to shiver.
"Heh heh heh! This is just too easy!" the Crystal King cackled until Kirby ice skated toward him and struck him with his Ice Storm attack. Although the Crystal King uses ice, he is vulnerable to it (just not weak to it).
"Poyo! (Leave my friend alone, you fiend!)" Kirby barked as he used his Ice Breath on him afterward. The Crystal King shot an ice beam at Kirby, but it didn't seem to freeze him in any way.
"Ugh… So my ice beam has no effect on someone who has the Ice ability…"
While the Crystal King was left confused, Mario jumped on his head, stunning him for a couple of seconds.
"Now's my chance to attack," Blade charged at the Crystal King and struck him with a fire slash. The only problem with that attack was that it didn't do double damage to him. It just did normal damage. "Huh…? It did normal damage?"
"That's right!" Jojora smirked as she tried to attack the group. However, Chopper knocked her wand out of the arena with a Smash Punch. "Eeek! Uncool! You creep!"
"Quit calling me a creep!" Chopper frowned as he dodged one of the Crystal King's ice beams. He ran up close to him and struck him with a Vulcan Jab, following up with a flaming sweeping kick.
"I'll make you pay for ruining my palace, Chopper!" the Crystal King growled as he summoned three Crystal Bits. One was diamond-shaped, another was shaped like a cube and the other one was shaped just like a sphere. He inhaled them and spat them out at Chopper, leaving some heavy bruises on his face.
"I won't give up the fight… There's no way I want to let someone die…" Chopper wheezed as he struck the Crystal King with a couple of fireballs. The Crystal King tried to block them with his ice sword, but it simply melted it.
The Crystal King summoned more Crystal Bits to help him, but while he did that, Sonic managed to strike him with a Light Speed Attack, and not to mention he sent him flying in the air with a Whirlwind. When the Crystal King landed on the ground, he was dazed, allowing the blue hedgehog to strike him with a Homing Attack before getting struck by the Crystal King's ice beam, which froze his feet.
"Unnnghh! I can't get out!" Sonic tried to pull himself out of the ice, but he couldn't get enough speed in to do it.
"I'll try to get you out of there," Blade said as he sprinted toward Sonic. However, the Crystal King wasn't going to let this happen. He inhaled his Crystal Bits once again and spat them toward Blade. Although, it really wasn't successful, since Blade managed to block each Crystal Bit with his katana.
Afterward, Blade melted the ice off of Sonic's legs with his katana, freeing him from the ice trap. Sonic thanked him and then charged at the Crystal King again, this time using another Homing Attack.
However, he got knocked away when the Crystal King blew a huge gust of icy wind toward Sonic. It didn't freeze him, but it definitely did make him feel cold because of the wind.
"Oh, man… That certainly wasn't good…" Sonic shivered.
"Hang in there, Sonic," Blade said as he struck the Crystal King with his katana and then tossed Hommissile straight at him. The Crystal King brought his arms up to defend against the attack, but it didn't do him any good.
"Hang on, king! I'm back!" Jojora managed to return with her wand once again. "This time, we'll get those heroes!"
"Excellent. Now do me a favor and freeze some of them, will you?"
"Certainly," she smiled as she aimed her wand at the group. She fired a large beam of ice straight at the group, freezing all of them but Kirby, due to him having the Ice ability on. "Aw, man! It didn't freeze that ice person!"
"Poyo! (Well, I'm going to make sure you're away from this place!)" Kirby managed to knock Jojora back with a kick, knocking her wand straight into the snow pretty badly. She tried to pull it out, but was having a hard time.
"You gotta be kidding me! This isn't cool at all!"
While she was busy with that, the others broke out of their frozen prison and turned their attention back to the Crystal King. Chopper immediately sprinted toward him and struck him with a Smash Punch, knocking him over.
"Gah! …Fine, if this is the way you're going to fight, then I might as well play a little dirty!" the Crystal King raised his arms and used his powers to recover 35 HP. "There. Much better."
"Oh, come on! He can recover HP?!" Blade gaped. "Now THAT'S unfair!"
"Relax, Blade. We can still win this. We gotta be fast." Sonic assured as he curled up in a ball and struck the Crystal King with a Spin Dash. Part of his crown got a bit crushed, but that was about it.
"You realize that no matter how many times you defeat me, I will always come back!" the Crystal King cackled as he swung his arm, tearing a part of the background to make Sonic get struck by an ice slash attack. "You can't even escape my ice slash attack either!"
"Well you can't escape this!" Chopper's foot had a flaming aura around it as he did a slamming kick on the Crystal King, leaving a harsh burn on him. "That's should help. Now, Mario… I have a little plan."
Mario: What is it?
"I'll toss a couple of fireballs to you and you use your hammer to throw them at the Crystal King. That sounds like a pretty good strategy, doesn't it?"
Mario: It's not bad!
"Great! Now here come the fireballs!" Chopper tossed a fireball up to Mario, who pulled his hammer out and whacked at it with his hammer, sending it straight to the Crystal King to do even more damage.
"Ack! What are you doing?!"
"Oh, just something that'll take you down!" Chopper smirked as he tossed another fireball over to Mario, who whacked it straight at the Crystal King again. When the Crystal King tried to float over to them, Chopper immediately whipped up his hammer and whacked him with a fire smash, followed by his spinning hammer attack that left him battered.
"This should freeze up the battle!" the Crystal King grinned as he summoned a large wave of ice energy toward the group. Unfortunately, Chopper wasn't able to escape this. He ended up freezing from it.
When he broke out of his icy prison, he saw that his Fighter ability was gone. "All right, I'm tired of becoming frozen," he managed to easily inhaled an ice ball that he tossed into his mouth to get the Ice ability.
"Great… Now I have two people that I can't freeze…" the Crystal King groaned as he fired an ice beam at Chopper. But what he wasn't expecting was that Kirby managed to strike him with an Ice Sprinkle attack that left him dazed for a couple of seconds. Chopper immediately went in and did an ice sweeping kick to knock him over.
"Hey! I wanna make a move too!" Blade gripped his katana and jumped toward the Crystal King, striking him a couple of times with his katana. Everyone didn't realize Luvbi was swooning over Chopper when he made those moves against the Crystal King, though.
"Keep fighting, Chopper!" Luvbi cried.
Chopper swung his arms at the Crystal King, striking him with some ice energy on his hands. Mario moved in and performed a Triple Jump on the king's head to deal some more damage.
"You're going to pay for that, Mario!"
"I got my wand, king!" Jojora smiled as she held her wand up. She flew toward Mario and whacked him with his wand, but Chopper immediately jumped over to her and froze her with his Ice Breath.
"Sorry, Jojora, but it had to be done," Chopper apologized.
"Stupid little… I better do this again." once again, the Crystal King raised his arms and used his powers to recover 35 HP. But he was soon struck by Kirby, who kicked him in the face with a kick.
"Poyo, (Just because you healed yourself doesn't mean you're going to win this,)" Kirby said as he used his Ice Breath to freeze the Crystal King a couple of seconds before breaking out.
"I know just what to do with you!" the Crystal King summoned three more Crystal Bits and spat them out at Kirby after he inhaled them, knocking his Ice ability away. He did the same exact thing with Chopper, knocking his Ice ability away as well and destroying both yellow stars.
"Aw, come on! That's not fair!" Chopper pouted. "…And I'm a bit low on HP too! That's not a good sign…"
"Well we've got plenty of healing items… So why don't we use one of them?" Blade suggested.
Everyone agreed and took one Ultra Shroom Shake. They each shared a sip and recover 50 HP from it. They do have a lot of HP anyway, so it wasn't going to harm them in any way. But the Crystal King had more HP than that, and he looked like he wanted to end them all.
"I guess I'm going to have to turn things around here…" he raised his arms once again, but this time he began to spin vertically around. To their surprise (well, mostly to Blade), they saw three Crystal Kings instead of one.
"Pray, what hast happened to him?" Luvbi asked.
"Apparently he's become three Crystal Kings…" Chopper made a jump for the first one, but he simply phased through it. They all cackled as they summoned a large blizzard that froze him.
"Oh, you'll be next!" the group stood in horror at the blizzard as the three Crystal Kings began to charge up another one. However, Blade managed to hit the right one with a shuriken and he even freed Chopper with a fire slash, melting him from his ice prison. The two clones also disappeared.
"Art thou cold?" Luvbi asked.
"I'm fine," Chopper assured as he quickly shook himself before tossing an ice ball straight at the Crystal King. It wasn't much, but when Chopper charged up an ice ball and shot it straight at him, that's when he did some real damage.
"Your ice attacks aren't going to do much to me, you know…" the Crystal King stated as he fired an ice beam straight at Chopper. He ended up countering it with a fireball, causing an explosion.
"Whoa… I actually did that?"
"That's pretty weird…" Sonic gawked before striking the Crystal King with three Homing Attacks. He knocked him over with a kick afterward, but it didn't stop the Crystal King from fighting back.
Using his magic again, he recovered 35 more HP. Also, he used his Crystal Bits to hit both Sonic and Blade for some intense damage, while Chopper and Mario stomped on his head at the same time to deal double damage to him. But, Chopper ended up getting thrown off from the Crystal King's ice slash, while Mario managed to stun him with a Ground Pound.
"Ugh! I can't take the damage from that butt stomp!" the Crystal King cried as he inhaled his Crystal Bits again and spat them at Mario. The Italian plumber pulled his hammer out and blocked the attacks with them. They didn't leave a dent on his hammer, so that was a nice thing for him. But what would've been nicer was if he hurt him again. So, guess what he did? With Kickbring, he managed to leave the Crystal King's crystal crown a bit cracked.
In fact, the Crystal King looked pretty battered, even when he healed himself.
"I won't lose to you people… That's something I will deny!" the Crystal King made two clones of himself in order to hide himself. However, Kirby managed to get the right one when he tossed Crystaline at them, since it was able to strike all enemies in his way. The clones disappeared and the Crystal King was frozen for a couple of seconds, allowing Mario to deal some heavy damage with a Ground Pound.
"Argh! This isn't over yet!" the Crystal King fired an ice beam directly at Sonic, who managed to dodge the attack and strike him with a Light Speed attack. Blade sprinted up to the king next and used his fire slash to deal some heavy damage as well…and he even added Hommissile to the mix as well.
"Man, from looking at this guy, it looks like he's toast," Chopper smirked, readying his hammer. The Crystal King was about to fire another ice beam, but he was interrupted when Chopper smacked him with his hammer.
"So, what's it gonna be, Crystal King? Do you want to give up already? We already have you beaten."
"I'll never lose to the likes of you, Chopper!" the Crystal King began to charged up an intense attack. It showed part of his robe sparkling with a couple of snowflakes. "This attack should be the end of you all!"
Mario: We've got to finish him, and fast!
"Mario… I think I know what to do…" Chopper tossed a fireball straight to Mario, who reacted by smacking it with his hammer. It struck the Crystal King, but it didn't seem to be enough.
"Hmmmmm… Let's try ice." With an ice ball thrown, Mario whacked it straight at the Crystal King. This time, the king began to glow a light blue color. "Wait… This seems to work!"
"Argh… This is…too…cold!" the Crystal King coughed.
"Hey! I think I see what to do here! Chopper, you gotta throw more ice balls over to Mario!" Sonic suggested.
Chopper nodded and began to throw a couple of more toward Mario. With each hit, the Crystal King felt even more cold air going into him. After about five more, the Crystal King was coughing like crazy.
And Mario knew just what to do… With a simple Ground Pound attack, the Crystal King was finished.
"No… This cannot be!" the Crystal King began to scream as he noticed the lower part of his body began to freeze up in ice. "What? How is this possible? The great Crystal King cannot have his life end like…this! Jojora! Help me!"
Unfortunately, Jojora was still frozen. The Crystal King continued to scream until he was nothing but a frozen popsicle. He wasn't in any ice cube, oh no. His entire body was completely frozen…and from the looks of it, he appeared to be dead.
"Whew… We finally did it…" Chopper sighed in relief. "I hope that's the last we ever see of him…"
"But there's only one thing I wanna know…" Sonic pondered. "How did he ever get in this dimension?"
"Poyo, (Sometimes, we'll never know,)" Kirby shrugged.
Jojora finally thawed out and got in his fighting stance, appearing confident as usual.
"All right, I'm finally ready to… King?" Jojora blinked at the sight of the frozen Crystal King. "Ummmmm… What did you jerks do to my king?! How dare you? You are so uncool!"
"Hey! He's the one who was picking a fight with us!" Blade retorted.
"I HATE YOU ALL!" Jojora cried as she flew out of the area, but not before shouting, "JERKS!"
"Whew… Well we finally took care of that." Sonic stretched his arms and sighed in relief. "So, who wants to go get a Pure Heart?"
"…Crysta!" Luvbi suddenly realized that Crysta was in danger, so she immediately fluttered up to the white door up ahead. Everyone sprinted over to the door and entered a white shrine with snowflake pictures on the walls.
"Crysta! Where art thou?!" Luvbi called out.
"L-Luvbi…? Is that…really you…?"
Everyone saw a light blue childish spirit that was coughing out dark energy, which seemed to show that she was sick from the dark power that was sent into her body.
"Yea… It is me. I bring yon heroes hither to thy shrine… Art thou…all right?" Luvbi fluttered up to her friend, who looked up at her.
"Luvbi… This darkness in my heart… You realize that it's going to…cough…destroy me soon, right?"
Luvbi looked down with a sad look. "Yea… I dost understand this. Yon king toldeth us… He said that Tipral came hither and hurt thee… But how canst thou die when thou art a spirit?"
"Not all spirits will be able to continue their life. Some will simply go away… I've known many that have…wheeze…died out. It appears my time will finally come at this moment…"
"What did Tipral do to you?" Chopper asked, frowning.
"He… He injured me with some of his dark powers, then impaled me with a powerful magical dark spear that would eventually put an end to me in an unknown matter of time… He said…cough…that he did it to stop you heroes from coming…"
"Is there a way to helpth thee, though?" Luvbi asked, starting to cry. "I just don't want to loseth thee!"
Crysta smiled at Luvbi. "Luvbi… My friend… Sometimes, being able to live for a long time isn't a good thing… If you became immortal, how would you feel about it? Would you want to be like that? I… I wouldn't."
"You lose all of the people you love so much, and you never get to see what happens when you actually die…" Sonic explained. "People say it's a blessing, but it seems like a horrible fate…"
"…Worse than death," Blade added.
"I've lost the people I loved because of someone…" Chopper remarked, thinking about what happened to his birth planet, Mondrao. "Listen, Crysta. If there's any way we can help you, we will do it."
"Hero… The only thing that can help me is if you let me die…" Crysta shed a small tear as she looked at the group. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do to help me… I know it's a tough thing for you all, but you'll understand…"
The five slowly nodded, but they didn't seem so happy. Luvbi probably took it the worst, due to losing her friend.
"Luvbi, you must understand too. What would you prefer? Having my suffering end, or keeping it?"
Luvbi wiped a tear off her face. "…I understand, Crysta. It may be for the best."
"Thanks…you…" Crysta pulled a snow white Pure Heart out. "Heroes… Please take this as a thank you. You need this more than anyone else. Please… Help all of those that are in danger of Tipral."
"It pains me to see you go, but I understand…" Chopper trailed.
"Thank you..." Crysta smiled as she slowly began to disappear.
Moments later, her entire spirit was gone. All that remained was the snow white Pure Heart.
"Oh, Crysta... Thou didst not deserveth this fate..." Luvbi trailed.
"It's OK, Luvbi... Maybe she's happy now." Chopper said.
"Maybe thou art right..." Luvbi picked up the Pure Heart and fluttered over to Chopper. "This is for thee…"
Nodding, Chopper took it from her hands. The Pure Heart began to float above him as the Pixls began to do their little dance. As soon as they were finished, Chopper held the Pure Heart up.
"How come he always gets to hold that up?" Blade asked.
"Don't ask me about it," Chopper frowned, his sad look changing into a confused one, as if Blade pretty much ruined the moment.
YOU GOT A PURE HEART
END OF CHAPTER
"Mayhap I'll see Crysta one day…" Luvbi trailed as they all made their way out of the Confusing Palace. "Mayhap she will be in The Overthere, waiting for me to come thither." Although everyone didn't know what to say, they simply nodded and continued. Even then, Kirby was still bothered by his own shadow. Just what in the world was that thing? And why did it want him to attack Chopper? These thoughts continued to plague his mind as the heroes left the Confusing Palace.