I know I said updates were gonna be Wednesdays for now on but I changed my mind at the last minute, it's on Tuesdays now.

Blah Blah Blah we're at the ruins now, LETS GET PUMPED! Also we didn't get any reviews today :/...anywho.

DISCLAIMER: Nintendo owns Super Paper Mario, not me. Disclaimer over.

In spite of the unforgiving dunes of the Yold Desert, Luigi and Co. had found the strength to bypass the shifting sands and had found the Yold Ruins. They ventured inside. "These ruins are awfully chilly, this must be the home of the Ice Beast!" said Blecky as they delved deep into the ancient structure.

Chapter 1-4

Monster of the Ruins

The torchlit Yold Ruins seemed devoid of any heat, the walls and floor were icy cold and slippery, and the blue fire that allowed the group to see anything seemed to drain the warmth of everything around them. The blue discarded shells of buzzy beetles lied scattered across the ground, the rest of the small foes having given up their life force to the torches.

The sound of bones clattering was heard ahead, getting closer and closer. Our heroes approached the noise, believing it to be the ruckus of another mindless enemy. In actuality, the sound was from a more self aware group of foes who were in charge of skewering any foreign entities that entered the the Yold Ruins in search of its secrets.

The heroes, armed for attack, found themselves face-to-face with a pair of skeletons with spears in their hands. One of them, purple colored and wearing a spite on its head, commanded the other, a blue colored skeleton, to attack the group in an ancient tongue. The lesser of the undead charged with the likeness of a jouster, prompting Luigi to dodge out of the way and make way to the leader. Said leader was much smarter than it's blue counterpart and allowed the hero to make his way towards it before swinging its spear at him at the last minute; miraculously, the attack only made a scratch, witch baffled both Luigi and his foes.

The purple skeleton, after some thought, indicated shock at a realization of some sort and promptly bowed to the hero. Its partner followed suit.

"Hero," it spoke "my apologies for not immediately recognizing your sacred light."

The abrupt change into hospitality was a surprise to Luigi, who usually expected the oversaturated kindness first, followed by a sour betrayal. He decided to go with the turn of events with a pinch of salt.

"Who-"

"WHAT THE HECK IT WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Blecky interrupted, still bitter about the fight with Mimi and anticipating to sink his teeth into battle instead of being a flying encyclopedia.

"We are the guardsmen of the Yold Ruins, the resting place of the Lineland Pure Heart. As protectors of such a relic, we have been entrusted powers that decimate all beings unworthy of entering these ruins; you are protected by the great creators and are therefore immune to our powers." The blue skeleton uttered, unfazed by the bat's attitude and not particularly interested in answering his question.

"English please?" Blecky asked in annoyance.

"We have been expecting you."

"Thank you."

The guards, whom Blecky declared to be skellobits, took it upon themselves to escort the group to the Pure Heart's location, both out of common curtesy and as an apology for attempting to turn the main character into Swiss cheese.

The skellobit guards navigated the twisting and interlocking tunnels with ease, skewering pesty buzzy beetles into dust-filled shells and shoving aside the slightly smaller but slightly more annoying cousins of the spiny tromp, the spiky tromp, into less job-interfering locations. All while other skellobits and their tiny wormlike counterparts, the skellobaits, passed by as if they had already known of the hero's arrival just minutes before.

According to their guides, the skellobits and their leader were once dwellers of the afterlife, but were allowed chances at redemption among the living. By accepting their tasks of protecting the Pure Heart, they forfeited the immortality they would normally have in the living world by filling their empty bodies with something akin to a mortal soul. This information ceased to bother them over time since the Yold Ruins were incredibly reclusive and the species are a whole had lost interest in causing trouble. Even their leader, who had been incredibly viscous, found he had more interest in preoccupying the Yold Town children with snow each year he awoke instead of trying to claim the Pure Heart he once desired to obtain for himself. Over the years, the species as a whole had become docile towards non-aggressive entities and had insisted on staying in the ruins after all was said and done, so they were given permission to do as such.

The frozen atmosphere seemed to become more mild to Luigi as the skellobits led them through the maze of brick and sand. Even as they got closer to the end and both groups ran out of conversational material, he felt warmly welcomed by the undead guardians.

The party approached the exit to the ruins, an open entryway into a Parthenon-like structure. Luigi felt an ominous wind in the premises and decided to jump underneath another 'save block' for good measure; he hadn't realized until that moment, but he had done the same thing before fighting Mimi. Such a habit was common for him when his subconscious suspected danger ahead of him. Perhaps Mimi was planning a second round to their previous fight.

He shook off the strange looks from his peers and followed the guards into the outside world. The structure was even colder than the ruins they had come from, so much in fact that there were icicles forming on the ceiling. Not a grain of the sand outside entered the pillared building as a cold breeze emerged from the center of the room. The source of this breeze was the chilling aura of a giant blue-boned beast in a deep slumber.

He stood as still as a ice sculpture. The bottom half was a golden canon-like device with a pair of proportionally large wheels and a thin black tail that curved upwards; the upper half was a typical skeleton chest and spine, but had the toothy head of a common dragon resting on its shoulders. The arms were thin like the tail, but gave the impression that they could break anything they grasped; likewise the six angelic wings on his back, although seeming small and frail, had a feeling of deeply hidden potential in the form of incredible flight capabilities.

The towering beast's crimson eyes eyes snapped awake to stare down at the plumber and his companions. He scanned the hero from head to toe and into his very soul, silently judging every flaw and imperfection before speaking as a living embodiment of frostbite.

"Hero, bathed in the light of thy great creators," he boomed. "your journey hast already been a treacherous one, and yet you hath only collected the first Pure Heart. I am Bonechill, the guardian of the second Pure Heart. My job is eliminate intruders and thieves, which thou are neither. As such I giveth thee permission to pass into the room behind me."

Before Luigi could thank the great beast for his kindness, a snicker echoed through the chamber.

"My my my, if it isn't the Man in Green. It's so nice to see you again." The feminine voice teased like a nagging secretary. Its source dropped from the ceiling between Luigi and Bonechill. "Now marks the spectacular arrival of Nastasia, the Ringleader of Darkness!"

"Who? Wait, have we met somewhere before?" Blecky questioned, eyeing the entertainer with suspicion.

"In a way, yes. But we can dwell on such information later. Now is the present, and as it stands this encounter is rather boring. Don't worry though, sweet little Nassy knows how to spice things up a bit for the audience!" She adjusted her glasses when she finished talking, a ring of red sparks circled Bonechill, who was sorely confused the entire time, immediately afterward.

The great beast twitched and rattled until the sparks dissipated, he closed his eyes and breathed heavily.

"My work here is done for now. So long Green Thunder!" Nastasia taunted before teleporting away from the chamber.

Bonechill's eyes opened slowly, his breath was deep and monstrous.

"Who dares approach me?" He thundered, "A puny mortal, a pathetic prophetic hero is what dares to witness me? Hero, you have made a poor decision to challenge the mighty fallen angel Bonechill and as such will be destroyed by my hand! The Pure Heart you seek shall be mine!"

He let out a mighty roar as hoards of skellobits surrounded him, entranced by the same spell that was driving him mad.

"Blecky! What's wrong with him?" Luigi called out, hammering away at the skeletal foes.

"He's under that madwoman's control! You'll have to defeat him!" The bat responded as he avoided a swarm of winged skellobits.

The amount of skeletons was copious to say the least. Every time one was defeated, a number more of them took its place like the head of a hydra. Luigi was slowly ruining out of strength, items, and patience with each hit he was forced to take. The skellobits weren't the only problem as Bonechill blew a gust of icy breath every minute or so. The icicles on the ceiling would grow in size until they were too heavy and would explode into a flurry of shards onto the floor. Large chunks of ice blasted from Bonechill's canon between breaths, increasing the amount of carnage.

The struggle became even greater for Luigi when his hammer was knocked out of his hands by an enemy, forcing him to grab a discarded spear from a previous foe. The pointed end of the weapon jabbed into the ribcage and through something partially solid, the skeleton disappeared into dust, leaving its own spear behind.

Mortified, Luigi pulled back the stick in his hands. The powers of its original handler still coursed through the weapon's material. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage.

Luigi grabbed the second spear and charged into the masses with the pointed ends of both weapons facing forward. The hoards dropped like flies from the mere touch of the weapons' heads, making a clear path to Bonechill himself.

Bonechill, however, was much tougher than his minions; his skeleton and canon were guarded by a thick layer of scales that deflected the attacks of the spear. The only part that seemed vulnerable was the head, so he threw the long stick with all his might towards that direction. The effect was immediate as the sharp spearhead imbedded itself into one of Bonechills eye sockets, the impact shook off a layer of scales.

Using this strategy to his advantage, Luigi called over the pixls to help him as he threw his second spear, which busted part of the jawbone. Blecky distracted the skellobits with his skilled flying capabilities while Laddie entered the Next to collect spears without being attacked. Luigi tossed Boomer into the golden canon during the chaos, destroying the inner mechanisms and forcing Bonechill to only use his ice breath.

With a bundle of spears and Luigi's hammer in tow, Laddie returned to the normal dimension to drop of their delivery. This prompted Luigi to engage in tossing spears at the beasts head until only frail bones remained. A gentle glow rested inside the place where Bonechill's heart would be, which Luigi instinctually aimed at with the last of his spears.

The spear and the light blasted apart, causing Bonechill to topple over and all of his minions to vanish. He let out a rumbling noise akin to shivering as he stared daggers into Luigi's soul.

"Bozzo had a message for you..." Luigi chocked up with guilt as he spoke. "He said 'Hi.'"

A glint of recognition briefly appeared in Bonechill's eyes before they went completely blank, like they were turned off by a light switch. The hot desert wind invaded the room, now that the icy aura from before was expelled, and carried away the fragile bones of the ice beast, now lost to the sands of time.

Luigi and company slowly made their way to the Pure Heart's holding room with their own hearts heavier than the brick they walked upon. The room was similar to most of the hallways that littered the ruins except the walls were beautifully decorated in unspeakable patterns, the guards that once occupied the stone chamber having meticulously cleaned every nook and cranny for the arrival of the hero.

A transparent figure sat at the opposite end of the room, covered by a smooth green cloak over a yellow toga-like article of clothing. The only other distinguishing thing about the figure was their green star-gem mouth, long locks of reddish-blondish hair, and distinctly masculine physique. He rose from the floor, soon hovering over it, and approached the group with a sunset orange Pure Heart in his arms.

"Welcome, hero. I am Merloo, a 1,500 year old soul that has long anticipated your arrival. Your presence indicates that all worlds are in the process of collapsing, correct?"

"Yes sir." Luigi and the others answered in unison.

"I see. Listen well hero, for I have important information that must be disclosed."

Luigi nodded, waiting to absorb all vital information like a sponge.

"A long time ago, my people built a great and prosperous civilization filled with power beings. But despite such power, we were completely powerless against one thing and one thing only: The Dark Prognosticus.

"The creator of this terrible book is unknown. What was known, however, was that it foretold future events thousands of years ahead of its time and that the very last page described a chaotic power that would devour all worlds.

"To stop such a catastrophe from happening, we created an object fueled by the essences of love itself to counteract the chaos, the Purity Heart. To protect it from evil hands, we divided the Purity Heart into eight Pure Hearts and sent them to different dimensions where they could be found by the hero of prophesy."

"Is that all you have for us sir?" Luigi asked, just in case there was some hints or tidbits that would help in the long run.

"Well I have this exhilarating tale from my youth you might be interested in." He replied.

"Uh-maybe some other time." Luigi dejected, still feeling the weight of an empty victory.

"...He would have preferred it like this." Merloo assured Luigi, who felt the heavy burden lighten just a bit with that response.

"Go forth hero, we are depending on you." With that, Merloo released the Pure Heart to carry itself into Luigi's possession.

Before finally disappearing, Merloo entrusted the fate of all worlds with Luigi, and proceeded to set himself at rest after waiting 1,500 years to deliver his message. Although Luigi found himself in slightly greater spirits by having the seconds Pure Heart in hand, he knew there was a long journey ahead to find the remaining six.

"We'd best return to Flipside." Blecky exclaimed as the group made their way towards the red-outlined door that appeared in front of them, leading them back to the faithful little town between worlds.

Our heroes now have a second Pure Heart, YEEHAW!

Only 26(ish) main chapters and at least 7 more interludes to go, at this rate I'll have this done before 2020!

I kid, I kid. Regardless, it will be a while before a new chapter since I actually have to write them first. I'm also working on Reboot while I do this as well, so that'll be a hold back. Just expect an update between tomorrow and the end of the universe and we should be fine.

Also, feel free to correct me on any mistakes or segments that don't make sense, especially since I sometimes overlook errors even after proofreading.

With that, Adios!