Post by crazynuto on Aug 7, 2022 10:39:20 GMT -6
Is it enough? Are we enough? Just one final push, one final grasp at hope before it's too late. The Earth trembles and cracks like an egg. Long tendrils of purple energy lash out, reaching and grasping for each member of our band of misfits. The Shroobs are grabbed by these...things and are absorbed into a mass of energy and mushroom. The walls of the castle shake as the foundation crumbles. A large mass of...something slowly rises out of the earth. The heartbeat behind your heads gets louder and louder. It's now or never. Do or die time.
Keziah barks an order at Yoshi, who leaps and dodges over the writhing mass of the Shroob army. A deep pain courses through your minds as you feel a rage reverberate out from the Copy of Princess Shroob. Yoshi jumps and bites down on Shroobsworth's arm, causing him to fall to his knees. He lets out a groan in pain, dropping a small item hiding in his pocket, glittering off the lights as it falls to the ground.
It is... simply a wine glass. Nothing more. Nothing less.
But how? Your theories, your deductions were unabashedly correct. The ceiling cracks and crumbles, a bookshelf from the library toppling over and causing one lone book to fall down, landing open at your feet. A familiar passage reads:
"The clone cannot last long apart from it’s host, and if their host is slain well…”poof!”. So it’s not particularly effective over long distances, but with some sort of external power source it’s by hypothesized that…[CENSORED DUE TO DANGEROUS INFORMATION]
The censored text melts away, revealing it's true message.
...with a strong enough source of energy, the clone can live on if it's original is slain."
A dark cackle erupts from Princess Shroob's lips as she raises her arms. Her chanting reaches a deafening roar as the being, impossibly large, slowly rises out of the Earth. Lavos, the Shroob's God, has awoken.
The ground beneath you tears open, each of you falling, falling deeper and deeper into the Earth. You can look down and only scream as get closer to this impossibly powerful being, it's pure energy alone radiating and decaying your mind. Closer, yet closer you approach, and right before impacting with the creature, everything stops.
You freeze in the air, a small shield of energy enveloping the group.
Confused, you look around. A small tear in Space-Time opens, revealing a small room, with a few small inhabitants scurrying about. At first glance they are merely Shroobs, yet as you watch their disguises melt away into their old, original forms.
The forms of your fallen comrades, Shy Guy, King Boo, Marisa, Squeaks, Shenhe, and The Dead King.
They appear to be at a control console, desperately sharing the mind-altering effects of Lavos between them. They puppet and control Lavos as he rises, preventing him from hurting the surrounding populace. You watch as Lavos rushes past, feeding on the world's energy and absorbing into the crust of the planet itself, changing and transforming the landscape around you. But rather than feeding off of the world, it seems to be...a cohabitant of sorts.
Buildings crumble, then rise again in new, mushroomy forms. The waters run purple with ichor, each plant and being beats with the same heartbeat now. A hivemind of information fills your minds, the wants and needs of the world being met at every turn. The sky, the animals, the seas, all live on in perfect harmony.
Shy Guy approaches the tear in space-time, and gives the group a nod.
"It was the only way I'm afraid. We feared the Cobalt Star would not be powerful enough to purge our lands of this virus, so we elected to seize it's power for ourselves. Killing Princess Shroob made our Copy the new leader of the Hivemind, and gave us the power to mitigate the damages Lavos's awakening will cause. The world will be born anew, a world of peace and harmony. Individuality will still exist of course, but each person will have a place they will forever call home. Now that Lavos is awakened, the evil energy flowing through the Shroobs shall be purged. We will have to live in harmony with them.
Our home will endure. The mistakes of the future will not be made again. Apologies it had to come to this, my friends. You will be safe here, to watch us work. . "
A strange sense of peace washes over you. A new World. Maybe we can get it right the second time. It takes hours, the sun dipping low into the horizon, but the world is finally done being transformed. True to their word, not a single creature was harmed. Most accumulate to the new environment well, their interwoven thoughts and needs creating a peaceful canvas to paint the future on.
But what of the dead?
Rising from the ashes of the husk of Lavos and Princess Shroob, it's energy spent in creation rather than destruction, are 6 members. Your friends. Their bodies, no longer decaying but rather fused with the lifeblood of the planet itself. They will live on as Gods, free to manipulate the very fabric of the world itself if they so choose. The world they have created is new and strange, but then again, what isn't? You look out from the ruins of the Castle as the sun sets, eager to move on and strike new ground.
Ending B - Marvelous Macrocosm
Such ends our story.
Thank you so much for playing.
(Epilogue will be up in a second)