Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 35: The Mysterious Mansion
Wild World was the fourth floating island of Floralia. Its environment consisted solely of jungle, but within that jungle there were large bodies of water and ancient gold temples. There was also something else existing at the heart of the island which no one would expect to find in such a place. "According to the map, there are multiple pieces of light energy in the haunted mansion," Taranza reported. Kirby, Magolor, Susie, and he were watching the map on the Lor's computer after reaching Wild World.
"Haunted mansion?" Susie said with surprise.
"Don't worry," Kirby spoke up, "I ate most of the ghosts last time I was here. If any more come to attack us I'll just eat them!"
The other three certainly didn't think ghosts sounded appetizing, but they knew Kirby could stomach almost anything. When the ship landed in front of the manor its riders came outside and gazed at the huge dark building, which stood out from the sunlit canopy of the trees. At its top was a single red eye that stared right at them. "I don't like the looks of this place," Magolor whispered, "Just look at that creepy eye watching our every move!"
"You're not scared, are you, Magolor?" Taranza whispered back, though such a sight was enough to make anyone feel on edge.
"Me? Scared? No, of course not!"
Everyone quickly approached the front door, the eerie eye continuing to follow their movements. Kirby slowly opened the door with a creeeak...and peeked inside. The coast was clear so he motioned for his friends to follow him, which they did as he entered. They found that the inside of the mansion was as dark as the outside but there was still enough light to see. The first room was small, quiet, and mostly empty except for one thing: an odd transparent barrier covering the entrance to the next room. "What is that?" Susie wondered upon noticing it.
"I'm not really sure," Kirby replied, "but you have to go right through it to get to the next room. It also makes me drop my Copy Ability but luckily I don't have one right now."
The four of them approached the barrier and were pulled right through it, and then they found themselves in the second room. This one was much larger than the first and appeared to consist mostly of platforms; oddly enough, the entirety of the wall to the left was a gigantic mirror. While it seemed ordinary enough at first glance, it was soon clear that there was more to this area than meets the eye. Magolor was the first to find out when, after the visitors began to move forward, he suddenly bumped into something. "Watch where you're going, Taranza!" he said, presuming it was the spider-like magician he'd collided with.
"I'm over here, Magolor," Taranza's voice came from somewhere to Magolor's right. The mage looked up and found that Taranza wasn't even close to him and Kirby and Susie were ahead of both of them. There was nothing in front of him so what could he have bumped into? He reached out with one hand and to his surprise he felt a solid wall!
"Ouch!" Susie cried out all of a sudden, halting abruptly when she felt a sharp pain in her left hand. Kirby and Taranza rushed over to see if she was all right but Magolor, briefly forgetting about the invisible wall in front of him, bumped into it again and fell down. "It felt like something poked me," Susie told Kirby and Taranza, rubbing her sore hand, "but there's nothing there!"
Kirby frowned. He knew what was going on because he'd been here before. "Oh, I forgot to tell you!" he spoke up, "In this room, what you see isn't what you get. If you want to see your real surroundings you have to look in the mirror."
Taranza and Susie turned toward the giant mirror and noticed that indeed, the contents of the room were somewhat different in its reflection. There was a pillar in front of Magolor who was slowly getting up. There was a Ghost Gordo in front of Susie who took a few steps back. "That explains a lot...I think," Taranza said. He was able to stand on what looked like a bottomless pit but was actually an invisible platform.
Upon discovering the secret of the mirror, Magolor was finally able to navigate past the invisible pillar. "Hey, check this out!" he called out to the others. He flew right through another pillar which was not actually there and then landed in front of them. "Heh! It's almost like being a ghost!"
"You will be a ghost if you don't look down!" Kirby exclaimed.
Magolor looked down and noticed he was falling right through the platform he'd landed on! He swiftly floated up to where his friends stood and said, "Okay, I think we'd better move on before we all get hurt!"
That was just what they did. After going through another barrier, everyone came to a chamber where parts of the floor revealed their glowing green eyes and vanished when stood on. Carefully traversing that part led to another space containing a mirror, where they had to be careful not to use the stairs because they were secretly covered in spikes. After that was a series of halls where silver statues resembling suits of armor lined the paths; each of them was holding either an axe or a mace. There were a few statues missing, which Kirby had previously inhaled after they were possessed by Ace Phantas. "Those statues sure look dangerous," Magolor commented upon observing them.
"Don't be silly!" Susie replied, "Statues can't attack!"
At that moment Taranza caught sight of something moving out of the corner of his eye. One of the nearest statues was shaking! A pair of piercing red eyes appeared within its helmet and it raised its axe. "Look out!" Taranza yelled, diving at his three allies and shoving them out of the way.
Immediately after landing on the floor, the four of them heard a clunk and felt the slight quaking of the ground as it was struck by the sharp weapon. They lifted their heads to behold the possessed statue, their hearts beating a little faster at the close call. Without any hesitation Kirby jumped up and inhaled the Phanta responsible for the attack. "That was way too close," he said to Magolor, Taranza, and Susie as they stood up, "We'd better keep our distance from the statues."
Unfortunately the statues weren't the only danger in the hall. The group only traveled a little farther before books and plates started flying at them, but Kirby simply inhaled them all. They had to deal with a group of Phantas that materialized at the end of the last hall, but those weak ghosts were easily defeated. The next chamber after that was of decent size but fairly simple, its main features being a door strangely resembling a painting and a large window on one wall. The window was wide open, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the chamber.
Despite the light providing a sense of safety from the spooky dangers, our heroes were not safe yet. Before they could move on an army of Spooksteps appeared on all sides. Spooksteps were very unusual ghosts who walked rather than floating and didn't seem to mind light. Right now some were charging at Kirby and pals, but they knew what to do. Kirby inhaled several of them and then spit out a big star, knocking out a large portion. Magolor's magic orbs, Taranza's magic webs, and Susie's Blaster took care of the rest. Once all the enemies were gone Susie said, "Who ever heard of walking ghosts? Don't they normally levitate?"
"Maybe those ones like the exercise," Magolor guessed.
After going through the strange door the travelers finally arrived at the final room of the mansion; it was somewhat small and contained bookshelves, a chair lying on the floor, and two pictures on one wall. A vase, a cuckoo clock, another picture, and a piano were previously in this room, but Kirby had inhaled them during a fight with King Phanta. Now there were five pieces of light energy floating in the middle of the room instead. "There they are!" Kirby was happy to see them. He jumped up and caught them all.
While he was rejoicing over obtaining the bright items, the others viewed the contents of the room. "Do you suppose someone might have lived in this mansion long ago?" Taranza wondered aloud.
"Probably someone with an obsession for spooky things," Susie responded. She and Kirby were about the enter the door leading outside when they noticed Magolor and Taranza, instead of following, were staring at the pictures on the wall. "Aren't you coming?" Susie called out to them.
"Where did these portraits come from?" Taranza spoke in astonishment, "Who painted them? Who put them on this wall?" Susie, followed by Kirby, came over to see what was so impressive. To her surprise the two pictures were portraits of her wizard friends themselves!
"Neither of us has been to this place before!" Magolor added, "Kind of creepy, if you ask me."
Kirby, however, wasn't so startled by the uncanny images. "I wouldn't worry about it too much. Anyone who paints your portrait and hangs it on the wall must admire you."
That reasoning made sense so Magolor and Taranza relaxed a little, and then Kirby's team was finally able to leave the eerie manor. They were glad to have accomplished their mission and to be out of the dark building, but Kirby was especially glad because he was starving. After all, books, plates, and ghosts weren't food!