Stepping into the Thousand-Year Door room, I looked around at every corner, expecting to find some X-Nauts or even their leader waiting for us; but the only person here was Professor Frankley.

"Professor?" Goombella said in confusion as we approached the old Goomba.

"Ah! Thank goodness you showed up!"

"Is it just you here?" I asked.

"Yes. Those fiends somehow opened the door and made their way inside!" WHAT!? I rushed to the door and ran my hand over it…the seal was still keeping it from budging…could Beldam have gotten them inside somehow?

"Soren?" Peach's voice pulled me back for a moment and I took a deep breath.

"Alright, let's open the door then."

"Just like that?" Bobbery asked and I nodded.

"We came this far to do just that anyway."

"What about the seal?" Koops asked.

"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it." Stepping past the group I hopped up onto the pedestal, star in hand. As soon as I did, the floor lit up again, all star patterns illuminated as the crystal star in my hand slowly faded away, letting the matching symbol on the door illuminate. As all seven stars on the door began to glow, the ground around us rumbled and shook, making the built-up rubble and debris around the door flake off before it slowly opened before us. The entryway before us was eerie; a pitch-black void into the abyss that not even my flashlight could pierce, the light immediately dying once it crossed the threshold of the door.

"My word…" Frankly spoke up. I reached my hand out, Peach quick to grip my other arm to keep me tethered, and reached for the strange void of black. When my hand finally crossed, we all let out various sounds of surprise as my arm disappeared into the void completely.

I wretched my hand out and was relieved to find I still had it…but that just meant that whatever was beyond this doorway could be considered another plane of existence…no, if they were able to get past the door then it has to be safe.

"Our goals beyond this door guys. Stay sharp." Everyone nodded and Peach gripped my arm in solidarity before letting go.

"You coming professor?" Goombella asked.

"There's no telling what kinds of traps and trials are in there. An old goomba like me will just slow you down. You hooligans just head on in and I'll wait here."

"We'll make sure to bring the treasure back with us." I spoke.

"Well…at least a portion of it." Mowz teased, prompting me to poke her in the forehead.

"Good luck!" We gave him a small wave before stepping past the dark portal that led towards whatever dark demon awaited us.

Gareth

Cleaving through another monster that dissolved into pure shadow, I wiped my brow and let out a huff of exhau- MILD TIREDNESS. Twenty sets of stairs down wasn't anything to sneeze at, and the monsters on each floor just seemed to get more and more aggressive with each layer. But the odd part was that each layer didn't open until I had taken out every monster on the floor. No skin of my butt, but it was definitely not going to be easy to keep up this pace if the monsters started to become more annoying or even a mild challenge.

"…Hope she didn't get punted to the bottom of this place." I mumbled as I carved through another floor monster. I trusted Lily to be able to handle most things, but long, drawn-out combat wasn't her strong suit. Book and memory were her wheelhouse, meaning if she got a sense of her opponent she could do some real damage, but the enemies in here just kept changing up every floor. No two monsters shared the same tactic, "Tch. Overwhelming people with constant different monsters is good for the brainy-" As another monster lunged at me, but I swung with all my might, cleaving it in two before it could even touch me, "-but not for the brawny!"

Stepping down to the next floor, I was slightly surprised by what I found. It was another shadow monster, but it looked suspiciously similar to those two brothers at the Glitz Pit match I caught a while back…the Add On Ice Twins or something…all I remember is they were famous for being impenetrable. One of them lunged at me and I was quick to swing back, clashing against the body but not even leaving a tiny scratch on it…thankfully my axe was still in one piece.

"Ah, so that's the contingency for me, eh?" The other one lunged next to stab me with its spike, but I stepped to the side, letting it fall to the ground and grabbing it by both feet before swinging it around and sending it crashing into the other one, puncturing each other and dissolving into nothing. With a satisfied smirk, I dusted my hands and watched as the door to the next set of stairs opened up. Hang on Lily, I'm on my way.

Lily

I let out a truly EXHAUSTED breath as I stepped into the next floor down…thankfully it looked like some kind of checkpoint room; devoid of any enemies and the stairs to the next floor already open.

"Then…maybe this is a good resting point." I moved to a nearby wall and slumped against it, letting my butt hit the dirt as I caught my breath.

I had gone down about eight or nine layers at this point and getting through each floor meant wiping out every enemy, but the sheer power they had was more than anything I had come across in the Mushroom Kingdom or on our travels around here. Beating them down with a wooden staff was possible but not at all easy. I didn't even know how far down I was from the surface…all I could do was keep going down and hope that there was an exit at the very bottom, wherever that was.

"I think I'll take a short rest here for now…" Making myself comfortable, I pulled out my scroll, finding a large crack along the screen that effectively made it useless for the moment…I hope Soren got my message.

"Snrk!" I slightly jumped as the noise brought my attention to something hidden in the corner of the room. Standing up, I slowly walked over to examine the figure…only to find someone sleeping in the corner, looking much worse for wear and slightly disheveled…but I recognized that red hat instantly.

"Mario?"

Soren

I was right in expecting an otherworldly vibe, but I had no idea it would be this bizarre and strange.

Crossing the threshold of the door had us pop out into a long hallway, a door wat the far end just visible enough for us. But the room itself was strangely limitless, stretching out in all direction and leaving our only view towards their border to be a blended and purple starry night view that even applied to the ground we could see beyond the edges of our narrow path forward.

"Amazing…" Goombella commented, her eyes sparkling.

"Yes…and a touch unsettling, if I'm going to be completely honest." Flurrie added, a visible look of uncomfortable strain on her face. That was new.

"Something wrong?" I asked and she grimaced.

"The air feels…wrong, darling. Stagnant and hollow, lifeless, and filled with death." I was surprised by her candor. She hadn't even flourished our added airs to her speech…something about the air actually had her on edge.

"Shame, the place matches your color scheme." Peach commented. Not sure what she was getting at though. The path and door seem to utilize fancy patterned carpet with Royal Red as its color of choice. The patterns seemed to be a mix of intertwining vines and blooming roses…with very prominent thorns.

"Ha! Red is so last season though. Any design of my choosing would use purple as its color and lush forests as a pattern rather than prickly thorns." Flurrie began to rattle off her design changes and Peach gave me a knowing smile I couldn't help but chuckle at. If we were going to get through this, we had to keep our moral up.

Stepping onto the pathway, I had to stop as the rest of the path became engulfed in flames before our eyes. It was an intense fire that forced me to step back as the heat almost made me dizzy.

"First trap is a wall of fire." …No, setup would have been better if this were at the moonbase.

"Does your shell protect against fire?" Mowz asked Koops who went slightly pale at the question.

"Technically, but I'd be turned into turtle soup from the heat."

"Fire can melt bone at high enough temperatures." Goombella said.

"…Why did you have to bring that up?"

"Don't worry Koops, we don't need your shell for this one." I assured him before turning to Flurrie, "Think you can blow away the flames?"

"Sorry deerie but its not that simple." She replied. "The flames are constantly being produced from some kind of channel.

"So?"

"Oh Soren, you're lucky you're cute." She pinched my cheek and I just had a moment of demoralizing confusion, "The flames are dying almost as quickly as they are being produced. It's as I said before, the air is dead, too dead for event he flames to absorb oxygen from, and too dead for me to manipulate properly. I short burst I could probably will but not the level of elemental control I wielded before." Hmm…

"Oh, what about Peach?" I turned to her and she gave me a confused expression before catching on and pulling out her air cannon parasol, "If this thing is still holding a charge from before we went through the door then it should still be 'live' air." Flurrie put her hand over the device.

"…I might be able to create a small bubble of air around us by recycling it to push a current away…but only for about thirty seconds." I looked back at the path forward, finding a wall of fire still blocking my view of our distance from the door.

"We'll have to risk it then."

"One other complication. I will need to fully focus to make sure we don't waste any of the air."

"So one of us will need to carry you." Well, she was too tall for most of us to carry her…all except-, "Bobbery, think you can do that."

"I reckon I can handle that."

"It'll be just like our time in the sky together." Flurrie teased. "Just make sure you ease up on the grip." Bobbery went slightly green at the memory.

Bobbery gave a small huff as he lifted Flurrie up, making a small comment about only doing this once before and not struggling as much, getting an annoyed slap from Flurrie in the process. With all of us close together, Peach held out her air cannon and Flurrie began to focus. The air inside the chamber began to slowly move out before a barely perceptible field of air began to cover our group.

"H-Hurry darlings. This won't hold forever." At Flurrie's warning, we began to powerwalk through the fire, cutting through the first layer of flames and moving forward as fast as we could…

"Stop!" I shouted making everyone come to a halt as I found our path waws no longer a straight shot. The path now curved to the left…and was very narrow, "…Flurrie, we're gonna need to reform." She gave a shaky nod as she continued to focus, "Everyone get in a straight line and follow the person in front of you exactly." With time not on our side, I started moving again, confident the others would follow carefully.

This place was not making it easy for us. I was positive the first look at this path had been a straight line but now it seemed to zigzag all over in an attempt to deliberately waste our already finite time.

"P-Please hurry." Flurrie said as I felt a lick of fire against my face for a moment. I doubled my pace, coming across another zigzag…and another…and another! I had no clue where the exit was anymore and we were almost out of time.

"I'm…sorry." I could feel the intense heat of the fire coming towards me…before I was suddenly ingulfed in shadows, before being tossed onto a patch of red carpeting.

Whipping my head around, I found everyone else apparently in the same confused state I was. We were next to the door we had been trying to get to, and the flied of flames still roared nearby. As though sensing we no longer needed to cross it, the flames died, revealing the path was now a roundabout path that squared in on itself, not even connecting to the doorway anymore.

"We had no way of getting here normally…" Peach said shellshocked.

"How did we get out then?" I asked.

"Thank goodness." I familiar meek voice spoke up, before Vivian popped out of the floor with a relieved sigh. "Th-That wasn't easy…but I knew I had to do it to save you guys!"

"Vivian!" I said and she gave a bashful wave before getting slammed into a hug by Mowz and Peach.

"You saved my beautiful fur!"

"I saw my life flash before my eyes…I had more regrets than I expected." I let out a small chuckle as Vivian was slowly overwhelmed by thank yous from everyone; guess Gareth figured we needed her help…good move buddy, thanks.

Standing back up, I looked over the trap we had barely been saved from. This was a very dangerous window into what we should expect of this place going forward. We have to make sure not to fall into something like that again.

Stepping through the door, we came into an actual interior room. The walls had ornate pillars spaced apart by red marble with stain glass windows spaced out equally across the room. Unfortunately, as though establishing an annoying theme, we found ourselves staring down a long stretch of nothing between us and the next door…supposedly.

"Everyone keep your guard up. No telling what's gonna pop out." I warned as I took the first step forward. Thankfully that first step didn't trigger anything…the second step on the other hand crumbled beneath my foot almost instantly, prompting me to step back before I fell back. When the floor crumbled away, it revealed a pit of spike perfectly square shaped and separate from the rest of the walk way, "…You can't handle fire, but what about spikes?" I asked turning to Koops.

"M-Me again!?"

"Most people would kill to have the ultimate shield!" Eggi said.

"But it's not!"

"It is made of bone though." Goombella brought up again. She stepped over to me and looked down the hole. "Given the depth….and apparent material…" She unsheathed by blade before I could say anything and tapped it against Koops's shell before sliding it back into its sheath, "Your shell should be able to handle landing on the spikes as long as its not perfectly hitting certain weak points-" She produced a marker from her bag and began putting an X on Koops shell in areas where it had been impacted from earlier fights in our adventure, "-here, here and…here!"

"Man, we've really been through a lot." I mused.

"And I've taken a beating and a half apparently." Koops added.

"Eggi, how long can you stretch your tongue?"

"I'm up to fifteen feet!" He declared proudly.

"Okay…then this should work."

Koops had receded into his shell, holding onto Eggi's tongue as Peach held Eggi. I looked at the Yoshi who gave a thumbs up before I tapped Koops's shell with my blade, sending it sliding across the floor. It made it about ten feet before the floor under Koops gave out and took him with it.

"Now!" Eggi inhaled and his tongue retracted almost like a fishing line, bringing Koops out of the hole. Honestly, this plan was working better than I had expected it to. Getting us about halfway through the room without taking any unnecessary falls.

"Are you okay?" Peach asked Eggi who only replied in a thumbs up due to having his tongue still extended. I probably wasn't winning parent of the year for this but Eggi seemed eager for it.

"Almost there guys." I announced readying another hit. Before I could golf Koops forward, Goombella tapped my shoulder and turned my attention to the area behind us. The ground we had crossed to get here was starting to crumble as well, "Of course…guess we're double timing. Eggi, when he drops, you immediately pull."

"Go i!" I tapped Koops forward and as soon as the ground fell apart, he was already being retracted. Quickly setting him up, I gave Koops another tap and turned around to get a look at how fast our path was disappearing…and it was getting faster. Tap, fall, pull, look, two previous spats gone. Tap, fall, pull, look, another three gone!

"Soren…" Vivian said with a quiver as the path bac became even more filled with spikes.

"Plan B." As soon as I said that, Koops let go of Eggi's tongue and popped out of his shell. With only about thirty feet between the exit and us this should work. With two quick squats, I jumped up and slammed my palm onto the floor, "Earth Tremor!" The star power sent a shockwave out that made the crumbling floor parts between us and the next door fall apart, revealing the remaining path, "Run!" Everyone took off as quick as they could, the falling pathway racing towards us. I tailed behind in case anyone fell back, and as Goombelle stepped onto the safe part of the floor, I moved to follow, only to have the floor crumble under my feet and prompting her to reach for my arm. With the help of the others, she pulled me up onto the safe floor and we took another moment to catch our breaths.

"This is leagues beyond any security I've run into." Mowz commented.

"No badge has been worth this much?" I asked.

"…One came close." She squatted down and poked at the Golden Heart badge I had on my belt, "That's how I knew it was special…don't know quite what it does but I'm sure it'll be helpful." I stared down at the badge she had poked.

"Me too."

I was surprised by what was beyond the next door. We had somehow entered some kind of plaza. A water feature at the center and everything. The tension of the previous two areas was nowhere to be found here, letting a calm atmosphere drape over us and allow us a moment to take in the whole place. Its simplicity meant we only had two visible ways to go, a door that looks like it led forward, and a building nearby with a dome on top of it…must be an observatory.

Bobbery pulled at the door forward, finding it unwilling to budge, meaning we only had one place left to search. Putting my hand on the observatory door, I was a bit wary to find it swinging open at just the touch of my fingers. As we all crossed over into the observatory, I couldn't help but feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, as though what we had just gotten through was the easy part and there was still something worse waiting for us somewhere in this strange place.