"Here we are," Connie said, "the first Great Lighthouse. Once this is lit, it should help us get to the next sea, where we can find the next Great Lighthouse. If we keep up this quick speed, it'll take us a month at least to get all the way back to the center of Concordia."
"24 days remain until the revival." Zokket said that in Mario's dream. They had to speed up their heroic process if they wanted to stop Zokket before then.
"Well, let's not waste any time then!" Mario said. "Let's get this lighthouse!"
The inside was like a maze. Mario and Luigi had to work together to lower bridges, open gates, and get to the elevator that would lead them to the top floor. Meanwhile, Mario spotted signs that aligned with Zokket's behavior from his dream.
The signs mentioned things they needed to do inside the Lighthouse, and mentioning that failure to do as such would result in forfeiting food-such as forgetting to put the ladder back up, which Mario and Luigi had to put back down to access a higher level. It went from breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, to even snacks. The sign maker had enough of it and complained about it on the last sign. The words were cut short in the middle of the sign writer claiming he was going to resign after loosing all their eating privileges for the day. Mario thought that perhaps Zokket caught them and possibly punished them for complaining.
They finally found how to open the gate to the elevator room, when a bloodcurdling roar echoed through the entire lighthouse. Connie let out a light gasp.
"That wasn't a friendly roar..."
A Concordian sprinted over to them. "You three! Are you monster fighters too?"
The bros shook their heads.
"Oh...Well, my name is Dewy Fightem. Some weird guys came in here, dragging a huge monster behind them. They shoved it into that room right ahead and...I peeked in to see what they were doing, and I saw they were feeding those weird Sprite Bulbs to the plant monster! Look, I love fighting those monsters off the face of Concordia, but I also know when to stay back and let the pros handle it. If you think you can take that thing on, be my guest. Just be careful."
"Well, than you for the warning!" Connie said, trying to be stern. "But you'd better get out of here, because things will...things will probably get bad! And I don't want you getting hurt or anything!"
"...Okay. I'll wait outside for the lighthouse to start glowing again. Maybe you can do it, since you're a Wattanist. I'll see you later!" Dewey hurried off.
Connie nodded to Mario and Luigi. "We better restore the lighthouse then. Concordia is counting on us!"
"Yah!" Mario agreed.
They ran inside, Mario spotting right away the three people from his dream-vision. The purple one hesitantly handed a red Sprite Bulb to the large pitcher plant in the center of the room. The plant chomped the Sprite Bulb out of his hand, making him flinch away from it. The pink one laughed at him. The green one looked to the group, faced back to the other two he was with, then took a double-take.
His jaw dropped. "Hey uh-"
The pink one yelled over him. "What?!" He saw Mario, Luigi, and Connie next. "Hey! When did you get in here?"
The purple one looked to them. "It's them! The mustached ones I told Lord Zokket about! They must have followed us in here!"
The pink one huffed. "Oh, but they think they're so special because they're fixin' Concordia, huh?"
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Connie asked, still trying to be stern. She was now failing.
The green one tried to speak again. "Well, we-"
The purple one interrupted him. "WE'RE not telling you anything! That's a surprise!" He smacked the green one in the side.
"But," the pink one continued, "we will show you the things we're doin' with the Spite Bulbs! Keehee!" He motioned towards the plant. "Meet Gobblick! And now that he's gorged down on delicious little Spite Bulbs, he'll crush you into scrap metal! That doesn't make sense, you say? Well, that's how hard he's going to hit you! He'll hit you so hard that it WILL make sense!"
Mario and Luigi shared a look of confusion.
"Grr...Gobblick, deal with these two already so we can go back to Lord Zokket and give him the report! So we can report that you DIED! Keehee!"
The three of them moved away from Gobblick, the large plant growling and roaring at the Mario Bros. Connie stepped back, not wanting to stand in their way.
Luigi found the quickest way to kill it was by tossing it into pillars of wind nearby, that would only be opened if Gobblick tried to smack them with his vine arms. Otherwise, jumping on his head usually worked. If they worked together to toss Gobblick into these mentioned tornadoes, the plant would become dizzy and drop his guard. Mario and Luigi would then attack him as quickly as possible with the Red and Green Shells they were gifted by a grateful Concordian on Shipshape before they left for the lighthouse. Using that strategy finished the battle almost as fast as it started. Mario and Luigi high-fived as Gobblick withered and died, releasing Sprite Bulbs into the air around them. They glimmered like fireflies as Snoutlet absorbed them.
"You did it!" Connie said cheerfully.
"Not sure if the rest of these fights will be this easy," Snoutlet said. "But...Ya did it!"
Mario picked up a sheet of paper. "What's this? I can't read it."
Snoutlet looked at it over his shoulder. "It's a letter from somebody named Patriarc. Do you think that's Arc's dad?"
"I think so," Connie said. "What's it say?"
"He mentions the plant, and the three we saw, and the Spite Bulbs...Basically everythin' we just witnessed. He says he's goin' to keep a record of everythin' he sees at these lighthouses."
"We should give this-a to Arc," Luigi said. "It's not much, but I'm sure he'd appreciate seeing something from-a his dad, to know he's-a fine."
"That's a sweet idea," Connie agreed. "I think we should do that. But first, we need to light the Great Lighthouse first. Let's head to the top floor."
The three of them stepped onto the circular elevator as Snoutlet ducked back under Luigi's hat. The elevator took them up to the top, where they had to walk up a short flight of stairs to the top. Connie pulled out her little watering can.
"Okay...Great Lighthouse, please show us the way we must go to restore Concordia." She poured a bit of Connectar to the top's base. She backed and stared up at it.
The bulb on the top of the lighthouse bulged, then popped open to form a huge flower. A large bulb sat in the center, which began glowing shortly after. A large beam of light shot from the bulb, cutting through the water like a knife. It created a current, leading Shipshape to a new direction. Or, as per what Arc explained, a new sea.
Connie gasped lightly, smiling. "It worked, Mario! Thank you for helping me yesterday!"
Mario nodded. "Of course! Nothing's any good if you're stressed!"
"We should head back down to Shipshape before it leaves us behind," Snoutlet inserted. "Cause there's no way we want to be left behind!"
"Right," Connie said with a nod.
Mario was in a much better mood that day. They were making great progress. If they kept up that momentum, they would have restored Concordia before Zokket was able to-
Oh.
The revival. Whatever he was planning on reviving, Mario figured had to do with that egg. But what was that feeling that came over him when Zokket was supposedly speaking to it? It didn't feel normal. It felt almost...too angry to be real. Mario shuddered, shaking the thought off. He had no time to worry about it right now. He wanted to see how Connie was feeling.
"Hey," Mario said, waving to her. "Are you feeling-a okay?"
"Yeah...I can't believe I did that, that I was able to do that. I wonder if Cozette is proud of me. I'm so worried, Mario. What if Zokket has her? And from what we got to see from your dream and the signs in the Great Lighthouse, it seems like Zokket isn't somebody you want to be near."
"I'm sure she's fine. If she's anything like-a Peach, she can take care of herself. Did you know Peach took out a witch using nothing but her courage?"
"A witch?"
Mario nodded. "I mean, there was magic involved, but that's not the point. I'm saying that-a I'm sure Cozette is fine. After all, she's your-a mentor. If she could get such a brave person out of-a you, she must be just as brave."
"Yeah...You're right. And if I spend too much time worrying for her, I'm not going to be able to restore the rest of the lighthouses."
"MARIO! LUIGI! CONNIE! COME OVER HERE! YOU NEED TO SEE THIS! IT'S URGENT!" Arc yelled from the cannon.
Connie and Mario were both equally worried, and came running over as quick as they could. Arc put his telescope away and pointed to the blocky silhouette of the next lighthouse, which drew near to the ship.
"The next lighthouse?" Billdit asked. "So soon? This is GREAT!"
"No," Arc sighed, shaking his head. "Mario, Luigi, you can see it better from the cannon. Take a look."
Mario and Luigi sat in their usual spots, and Mario looked through the telescope.
"You see, it is the lighthouse, and convenient that it's right there. But..."
Mario gasped. Arc was right, the lighthouse was easily visible now. And just like the other one, it lacked any sort of glow. However, this one was dreadfully wrong. Instead of seeing any way into the lighthouse, or to the island, Mario saw something else. Something very strange.
A wall of solid iron.