//------------------------------// // Chapter 105: Reborn Butterfly: Morpho Knight // Story: A Sweetie Dream Land // by Lucar //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle looks at this new butterfly-winged being in disbelief. It (he?) just came out of nowhere! Why would a butterfly suddenly come and turn into this? And if this is the same butterfly she saw on New Halcandra before losing consciousness, then what has he done to Galacta Knight? No doubt he's the reason why Galacta wasn't here anymore. And why is she freezing since he appeared? This cold is beyond anything she can think of! She feels it right into her soul. An unnatural cold not of this world, even colder than darkness. And yet, despite this cold, she's sweating heavily, this being ringing alarm bells in her, and looking around, Sweetie can see that she's not the only one. Everyone is their group is feeling the same, even Meta Knight, Dark Meta Knight, and Marx! If Marx, of all beings, is sweating, then this means this is bad. What, and who, is this being? And what does he want? Kirby advances carefully, staff ready to defend himself. "Poyo?" The butterfly being slowly floats down to land, not answering for many long seconds. Until finally... Call me Morpho Knight... a dark, ashen voice says, seemingly coming from everywhere, but actually coming from their minds. I have come today... to judge if this universe will end... or not... I always knew this day would come... And I knew, Son of the Void, from the day you appeared... that you would be the key... From this day, I observed you... I saw you grow, develop your powers, make strong allies... However, as of now, you... All of you... can't hope to save the universe... If you were to enter that hole, you would fail... You aren't ready... "What are you saying?" barks Dedede. "Of course we are ready! We prepared a whole year!" You prepared, but you are not ready... If you were to continue, you would end up fighting the Fallen Officiant, and with the power of Destruction in him, he would destroy you... And this universe, and countless others, would follow... However... There is still a chance for this universe to survive... At this, the named Morpho Knight spreads his arms. And thus, I come to you, to test you... Resonating with this vessel's screams of the many years spent living, and training hard, I now possess the necessary power and skill to see, whether or not, if this universe still has a chance to see another day... Morpho Knight then readies himself, taking position to fight. Defeat me, together, and your chances of avoiding annihilation will rise. Many of the heroes, more notably most of the ones befriended by Kirby in this adventure, gulp before they all ready themselves. Sweetie Belle can already say that this will be a hard fight. If what she understood is correct, then this butterfly thing pretty much took possession of Galacta Knight to use his power to test them. But while she knows Galacta's powers, she doesn't know Morpho's powers, and how he will use Galacta's powers to fight. This thing is clearly nothing they fought until now, anything is possible. Dark Meta Knight is the first to attack, charging at Morpho Knight, ignoring his instincts screaming at him to not do this. He should have listened, because it only takes one second for Morpho Knight to defeat him: half a second to push Dark Meta Knight's sword out of the way with just a swing, and half a second to slash him with enough force to project the knight back in front of the heroes, badly injured and burned, Morpho's sword having a fire effect. The Vividria immediately goes to work to paint some food for him to heal while the others look in disbelief. Marx then looks at Morpho in rage. "Nobody almost kill my buddy." He teleports, appearing above Morpho Knight before attacking him by spitting one of his ice bombs. But then, Morpho Knight teleports right behind Marx, avoiding the ice bomb, and immediately slashes him on the back, causing Marx to drop. Morpho then teleports in the middle of the group of heroes, quickly slashing at the Burning Leo, before he teleports again, this time, slash the Plugg. This continues for a small moment, successfully slashing ChuChu, the Jammerjab, and the Bonkers before anyone could react. Daroach is able to avoid the same fate by teleporting away, and Meta Knight quickly charges at Morpho before he could teleport again to attack him, but he's not fast enough, and Morpho is able to teleport away to attack the Como. His attack is stopped by Kirby parrying him with his elongated staff, and Sweetie Belle uses the occasion to fire some beams from her cannons, only for Morpho to fly up to avoid them, causing her to almost hit the Como as a result, the spider rolling to dodge them. As Morpho flies up, however, the Birdon is able to take him by surprise and to ram him from behind. But Morpho Knight quickly recovers before anyone could attack him again, and he teleports, avoiding the Bio Spark's kunais before slashing the Vividria, stopping her from painting food to heal the wounded. Adeleine takes over the role, starting to paint food, only for Morpho to attack her too. Sweetie Belle has seen it coming, and immediately puts a shield to protect the human girl, only for Morpho to easily cut the shield and slash her despite it. He then teleports away just as he was about to be rammed by Meta Knight, continuing to attack the heroes one by one while escaping almost any attempts to hit him, still teleporting too rapidly for most of the attacks to hit him in time, even Sweetie's beams. Ruthlessly, he slashes, and slashes, and slashes again, leaving the small army of heroes helpless. And yet, all he does is teleporting and slashing! Skills that Sweetie Belle and Kirby are very used to fight! And they probably would have no problems countering this if it was just the two of them, they would just have to watch each other's backs. But here, with their number, it's impossible to predict who will be the next target. Normally, force is in number, but here, it works against them! But despite this, they don't lose hope. As they watch more of their friends get injured, their determination to win this fight, knowing that if they lose, this is the end, not only for them, but also for the universe, rises. They can't lose! Deep in them, resonating with their determination, their hopes, their friendship, the power of the pink heart grows. A pink light starts enveloping the heroes, and immediately, they all know what they must do, and what others will do. It's as if they are now one. Sweetie Belle invokes her own easel and starts painting food to heal the others. Morpho immediately attacks her, only to be stopped by Cape Knight who parries him before he's suddenly hit by Dedede's hammer almost at the same instant, the hit sending him flying right into Knuckle Joe's punch. Meanwhile, Kawasaki invokes his pot, and some of the closest heroes still up jump in it for him to create food while Magolor and Daroach teleport beside him to stand guard. Adeleine and Vividria are healed first so they can help in healing the others and Sweetie starts covering the weapons of everyone in different elements, fire, ice, spark, wind, and water, adding damage and effects. Morpho tries again to attack the healers, but is again stopped by other heroes guarding them, so he returns to his normal tactic of choosing a random hero to attack. However, as soon as he appears behind someone, one of more close heroes immediately react to stop him, and if he remains one second too long, then all the heroes turn toward him ready to attack, and the last thing he wants is to receive a storm of attacks from over half a hundred of heroes! In just a few seconds, everyone is healed, and Morpho hasn't been able to hit anyone, taking himself some really bad hits instead. His teleport-slash-teleport-slash-etc tactic doesn't work anymore. So, Morpho Knight decides to stop it, and instead, teleports in the middle of the group, sound waves released from his wings. Everyone hit by them find themselves enveloped in some mist before they start attacking their own friends! As the heroes are confused by what's going on, Morpho Knight continues teleporting around while releasing those sound waves, turning more heroes against their friends, as if turning around the power of the pink heart. The fact that it has something to do with the pink heart seems to be confirmed when Sweetie and Kirby discover that they're both immune to those waves, probably because they both got an 'original pink heart' while the others got 'secondary pink hearts'. After turning about half the heroes against their friends, Morpho Knight stops releasing the sound wave and uses the chaos caused by the heroes fighting each other's to charge energy in his sword before releasing it to create a few tornadoes. In the chaos, not many heroes are able to dodge them, and the ones turned by the waves don't even try to avoid them, causing many of them to be swept by the tornadoes. As they are sent in the air by the tornadoes, Morpho Knight fires sword beams at them, adding more damage. Kirby quickly finds a solution to stop the friends turned by the waves from attacking the others: he simply sends pink hearts at them to bring them back to their senses. The others quickly follow his example while Sweetie Belle goes deal directly with Morpho Knight to stop him from attacking, followed by Marx and Meta Knight. Sweetie Belle gains Morpho Knight's attention by attacking him with some beams, making him teleport. However, when he appears, Marx teleports behind him, and the jester kicks him on the back, sending him toward both Sweetie Belle and Meta Knight, each with a sword ready. The two friends perform a cross-slash on the butterfly, but he quickly recovers before teleporting away. Marx teleports again behind him to repeat his action, only for Morpho to teleport again and appear behind Marx before he cuts his back. By then, however, all the heroes are back to normal, and they all start attacking Morpho Knight with everything they have. Morpho tries to avoid the assault by teleporting at the opposite direction, but NESP quickly spots him, and everyone immediately turns to attack him again. But, as he's circle, he releases more sound waves, turning any heroes attacking him directly with their weapons against their friends, before he teleports away again. While the heroes are busy throwing pink hearts, Morpho Knight raises his sword, engulfing it in light while taking it with his two hands. The next instant, the sword separates into two identical swords. As the heroes finish saving the corrupted ones, Morpho Knight then swings the swords, sending swarms of red ghostly faces to attack them, their haunting screams not of this plane making the heroes' skin crawl. Nothing works against those ghost things, so all the heroes can do is try to avoid them until they disappear, but the number of ghosts makes it really hard. Some of the heroes are still able to pass through the ghosts to attack the butterfly. But then, after sending some last few ghosts, Morpho Knight's swords suddenly grow in size, becoming as big as the giant Ultra Sword Kirby used as his ultimate attack against Magolor before he was possessed by the Master Crown. Small vortices then appear among the heroes, attracting them as Morpho starts swinging his swords. Between the vortices, and the ghosts still hindering them, many heroes can't avoid the swords in time, but thankfully, the weapon users among the heroes all gather to use their combined strength to parry them, working as a single entity to counter the butterfly. While the weapons are clashing, Knuckle Joe grabs Beetley, Bugzzy grabs Rocky, Wester wraps his whip around Spikezilla, Gim wraps his yo-yo around Burning Leo, and Prince Fluff wraps his yarn around NESP. The first ones then throw the second ones toward Morpho Knight one after another, Knuckle Joe throwing Beetley first, horn first. Morpho teleports in time to avoid him, only to be hit by Rocky with a big stone fist. Rocky then uses Morpho's body to jump, leaving the place for Spikezilla to grab the butterfly and smash him on the floor where he's crushed by Rocky in his boulder form. Morpho teleports away, only to be hit by Burning Leo charging as a big fireball almost as soon as he appears. NESP comes next, and Morpho quickly swings one of his giant swords at him, only for NESP to teleport behind him before using his psychic powers to 'punch' Morpho Knight with his mind and throw him on the floor, right in the middle of all the elemental users minus Burning Leo. They all fire at him, quickly followed by the remaining heroes using all kinds of projectiles. Despite the many attacks, Morpho is able to teleport out of there and reappears among the heroes before he restarts swinging his giant swords again, not giving them time to assemble to counter him, forcing them to try to dodge. Vortices, however, appear again to make their attempts harder, and Morpho restarting randomly teleporting around while swinging his swords causes many of the heroes to be badly injured as a result, the swords even causing the ground to burn! While the healers still up redouble efforts to heal the injured, Kirby, Sweetie Belle, Meta Knight, Dark Meta Knight, Cape Knight, and Magolor assemble and use the power of the pink heart to invoke a giant sword looking exactly like Kirby's Ultra Sword. Holding all together the big handle of the sword, they start swinging it to parry Morpho's sword, stopping his rampage. At the same time, Bonkers jumps on Dedede, and they both start spinning toward Morpho Knight with their hammer. The butterfly teleports to avoid them, only to be grabbed in the tentacles of a big red octopus of yarn before being slammed on the ground where he's punched by the octopus as well as a familiar squid of clay with an eyepatch. Out of the way, Yin-Yarn and Claycia give each other a fist bump. The octopus and the squid are eventually cut to shreds by Morpho's giant swords, but he finds himself slashed again and again by the giant sword of Kirby and company. Meanwhile, Sir Kibble grabs one of his cutters and gives it to Poppy Bros Jr before they are both grabbed by Susie with her armor. Susie then starts spinning the arms of her armor while charging at Morpho Knight, Sir Kibble and Poppy having their cutter ready to slash him, giving this attack the form of a slashing tornado. From the opposite direction, Dedede and Bonkers, still spinning, also come. The hammer users reach Morpho first, their hammers sending him right into the blades of the cutter tornado. Bonkers then jumps toward him, followed by Dedede, and he crushes Morpho Knight under his hammer before Dedede smashes his hammer on Bonkers' hammer, giving more power to the attack. Sweetie Belle then starts charging her Ultimate Doom Laser and fires just as Morpho is able to push away his attackers with his swords. Seeing the laser coming, Morpho Knight crosses his swords and is able to block it, only being pushed back a bit. He then starts gathering energy and fire at the point where his swords cross, and fires an even bigger, planet buster-like laser of fire back at Sweetie Belle, pushing back her laser. Sweetie Belle is however joined by Kirby, who starts using the power of the pink heart to boost Sweetie's laser, turning it pink. One by one, all her friends join her to boost it, the ones who can fire their own laser joining them to hers to boost it even more. The pink laser totally overpowers Morpho's, and the knight finds himself enveloped in it. And yet, when the laser stops, leaving a big hole in the wall of the place, Morpho Knight is still here, still alive. But his swords are gone, and except for his wings, he doesn't move at all. This universe still has a chance... they suddenly hear him say in their mind. Surprised, the heroes look at each others, confirming that they have heard it right, before Bandana Dee asks "Does this mean that we won?" As if to answer his question, Morpho's form starts to disintegrate, energy shaped like butterflies escaping him. But as he disappears, he swings his right arm, opening four star-shaped holes near the staircase to the hole where Hyness and the Jamba Heart disappeared. You still have a lot to do to save the universe... As we speak, Hyness is merging with his power, and if nothing is done... his mind will be lost forever... You could perfectly wait for this to happen, but then... you would definitively lose the support of three potential future and powerful allies who would greatly increase your chances... To save him, you will need the very power that you have been growing since the beginning of this adventure... The one that you needed to use to win against me... The power of the Heart Spears... Positivity in its purest form... But in a much bigger quantity... When Hyness accidentally broke the Jamba Heart... he also broke the Heart Spears that were used to seal him, breaking them into many pink hearts that dispersed everywhere with the pieces of the Jamba Heart... Now, however... because of Hyness' actions, the barrier between the two dimensions is breaking... and as the fusionning process progresses, it worsens... Breaches are starting to appear more and more... Everywhere... And the pieces of the Heart Spears already fell to the other dimension... You will have to gather them... and reform the Heart Spears... if you want to stop Hyness from succombing to the darkness... and save all of them... "But how do we reform the Heart Spears?" asks Sweetie Belle. Normaly, with enough power, you can create your own Heart Spears... like the heroes of yore who saved the universe in the past did... But none of you have this power... He looks at Sweetie Belle and Kirby. Yet... This is why you must gather those hearts... a total of 120, including the two pieces in you... and assemble them to reform the spears... The how should come naturally to you... He waves at the four holes he created. Those holes will lead you to those hearts... but watch out... Each of those path will end with an encounter against a terrible foe... familiar to you, and yet, very different... Those foes are manifestations of the negativity of the other dimension... given even greater powers by the Jamba Heart itself... And they now guard a certain number of pieces of Heart Spears... "Manifestation of the negativity of the other dimension..." says Meta Knight. Magolor facepalms. "Of course! Of course!" he turns to Sweetie Belle, Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Dee. "You remember what I said about the other dimension becoming like a crazy, evil mirror version of this one?" "Oh, yeah... The 'evil clones'," says Bandana. "So... Evil clones given powers by the Jamba Heart?" ponders Sweetie Belle. "Probably the same power that the Jamba Heart Pieces gave to us when we were corrupted," says Meta Knight. Sweetie Belle looks at him in worry. "So, it could be..." She waves at him and all the others who got corrupted by a piece of the Jamba Heart. "clones of any of you when you got corrupted, but even more powerful?" She looks at Marx, sweating. "Some of you were already extremely powerful..." "You can add Whispy, Pon and Con, and Kracko. They were corrupted too," says Cape Knight. Once you have the four Heart Spears... then says Morpho Knight. You will be able to use them to break the Jamba Heart and stop the process... You will still have to fight Hyness, but he will still have some of his mind... Once he's defeated, the accumulated power of the four spears will be enough to free him of the influence of the God... and the God himself will be forced out... "And we fight the God," says Meta Knight. "I would have preferred to avoid fighting the Dark God," says Magolor. "but at this point, I suppose that we have no choice." Remember... starts Morpho Knight as he closes his eyes. The power of the Heart Spears... The power of friendship... is the key... to end this... once and for all... With those words, Morpho Knight disappears in a bright red light, countless butterflies coming out of it. When the light disappears, a last butterfly flutters away, leaving behind Galacta Knight who drops on the floor, unconscious, his mask back on his face. "Galacta Knight?" shouts Magolor in surprise. "So this is where he was," says Daroach. "Is this...?" asks Meta Knight. "Yes," confirms Sweetie Belle. "This is the Child of the God who... You know..." "Oh?! So he's the guy who started this whole craziness?!" shouts Dedede as he prepares his hammer. "Leave him to me! I'll turn him into paste!" Before he can advance however, he's stopped by Sweetie Belle who puts a hoof in front of him before shaking her head. "Don't." "But..." "Remember what Morpho Knight said. Friendship is the key. And this guy..." She looks at Galacta Knight in sadness. "He needs friendship more than anyone... Well... I can think of someone else who needs friendship as much, maybe more. But Galacta... What he said to me when I defeated him..." Meta Knight looks at her with wide eyes at this. "He isn't a bad guy. He was just forced to do horrible things because he had a goal, and others weren't okay with this goal and got in his way." "What was this goal?" asks Meta Knight. "Freedom," simply answers Sweetie Belle. Meta Knight ponders this for a few seconds, remembering the history of the Children of the God, what they were, before he closes his eyes and sighs. "I see..." "So, he may have a good reason for his actions, but they still caused all this," says Dedede. "The Civil War! The God becoming a Dark God and almost destroying a whole dimension! All the worlds that Zero plunged into darkness! What happened to the Great Artist's creations because of Dark Crafter! Sectonia! Haltmann! This whole problem with this cult! All the suffering! The deaths!" He points at Galacta Knight. "He's the origin of all this!" At his words, they all look at Galacta Knight, knowing that he's right. Many of them are indirect victims of Galacta's actions. Dedede got possessed by the Dark Matters, three times, and Sweetie Belle and everyone in Dedede's army got possessed at least once, without forgetting the civilians who either got possessed or got brutalized by the possessed. For the ones who were able to escape the Dark Matters, they then had to deal with the invasion of the Haltmann Work Company. Both events caused many victims on the planet. Meta Knight had his people almost exterminated and forced to the exil. Of course, it was in the past, he wasn't even born then. But without counting it, he was still almost imprisoned by Dark Meta Knight under the orders of Dark Mind, Zero's mirror counterpart, and his lineage had to live with the burden of Dark Nebula for some time. Adeleine also got possessed by the Dark Matters, twice, and Ribbon got her world invaded by them. Daroach was possessed by Dark Nebula, and Magolor was possessed by the Master Crown (without forgetting that his people were forced into exile). Yin-Yarn was corrupted by Dark Crafter, and Claycia got her sisters corrupted (and killed) too, and she was forced to live hidden for her protection until she was found and possessed by the dark being. Prince Fluff had his world threatened by Yin-Yarn. Taranza had his best friend corrupted and he was forced to kill her. Susie was sent to another dimension, and while she was away, her father was brainwashed to the point that he couldn't recognize her before his soul was absorbed, almost deleted, and destroyed. And now, more recently, some of them were corrupted by those Jamba Heart Pieces. But some of them don't have the same feelings. If it wasn't for Galacta's actions, Gooey and Dark Meta Knight wouldn't be here. And Kirby too. Sweetie Belle sighs. "Yes... and no." When she sees most of her friends look at her, some with eyebrows raised, she continues. "I thought about this for a time, and it's actually everyone's fault. Galacta Knight wanted freedom, and so, sort of started this. The Children of the God, loyal servants that they were, too loyal, didn't want to let him go, and so, fought Galacta to stop him. The Ancients followed them, Galacta's actions being seen as heretical. And the God? He could have simply used his powers to stop them, and could have told them to let Galacta go, but he did nothing, I'm not sure why. If the Children weren't so close minded, if the Ancients weren't so fanatical, if the God had just acted, all of this wouldn't have happened. We can't just blame someone because they just wanted something that anybody would want: to be free to do what they wanted. He didn't even want to do any bad things! He just wanted to stop serving the God and to live his life. But at the time, it was too much to ask. And no, the God had no problem letting Galacta go, Galacta told me this. And in the end, everyone involved in this ended badly. Galacta was sealed, the Children were almost exterminated, the Ancients lost their civilization, and the God became the Dark God. No need to add more." Kirby smiles at her and nods with a "Poyo!" before he walks toward Galacta Knight. "See? Kirby agrees with me." "He would become friends with Zero himself if that thing comes back and decides to stop being evil," says Dedede. "True," says Sweetie Belle before she follows the puffball just as he raises his arms to create a pink heart. He then throws the pink heart at Galacta Knight. The heart immediately heals all the injuries that Galacta got in his fight against Sweetie Belle, and the pink knight slowly wakes up and groggily sits. He then looks at Kirby and Sweetie Belle in silence before saying a single word. "Why...?" To his surprise, he's then hugged by the two of them. "Because you need it." Galacta Knight remains silent after that, too shocked to answer. He eventually closes his eyes, accepting the hug silently. Nothing is said and done for a whole minute. Until Meta Knight approaches them and clears his throat to gain their attention. "I hate to interrupt this, but we must hurry before Hyness finishes merging with the Dark God." Galacta Knight looks at him in confusion. "Someone is merging with father?" "Yeah... We should first put him to date. He has a few millennia to catch up," says Sweetie Belle. After some explanations. "So now, you must go to reforge the Spear Hearts to stop the merging process." Meta Knight nods. "And after that, we will have to fight Hyness again, and finally, the Dark God himself." "So, can we count you in?" asks Dedede, still insure of counting Galacta Knight as a friend. At best an ally of circumstance. Before Galacta could answer, Sweetie Belle suddenly speaks. "Wait! Galacta Knight, are the Heart Spears those pink needles things with a heart that you used against me in your dark form?" "Dark form?" asks Magolor. "Yes, they are," answers Galacta Knight. "Sorry by the way, I used them to try to seal you." "Don't worry, it's in the past. Anyway, if you come with us, we won't need to gather all the pieces of the Heart Spears! You can invoke them and break the Jamba Heart!" She's answered by Galacta Knight staring at her hopelessly. "What?" "Despite the power of the pink heart giving me back some of my strength, I'm still too weak to be able to create Heart Spears. I could still fight at your side, but I wouldn't be at my full power." "Darn..." "But... I feel that I still can be of use for you, but in another way than fighting. You already proved that you can defeat any foes that you encounter. You even defeated me. I'm sure that even without me, you will be able to defeat Hyness, and even fight father. However, fighting father won't be enough to stop him definitively. Even if you manage to 'kill' him, he will eventually come back. You will either have to seal him again, or destroy the negativity in him. I can tell that you would rather do the last, but you don't have enough positivity to deal the definitive blow. Even with the added power of the four completed Heart Spears, it won't be enough. You will need more. And I think I know how to get more. But I need to go on my own." "Aww... Oh well, if you think it's for the best. Too bad, I would have loved fighting alongside the most powerful warrior of the universe." Galacta Knight chuckles. "Maybe once I'm finished with my task. And remember, you are now the most powerful warrior of the universe." Sweetie Belle stares at him with wide eyes. "...............Oh right! Woah... I didn't think about that... It's... Of the universe... Woah..." "Uh... If Sweetie Belle is the most powerful warrior of the universe, then what does this make Kirby?" asks Marx. "He's a future God. He doesn't count," says Galacta with a small laugh as he rubs Kirby's head. Then, taking his spear, he opens a hole in the fabric of space before he prepares himself to fly through it. But before, he turns back toward Sweetie Belle and Kirby to say a last "Thank you." He then flies through the hole before it closes. Kirby waves goodbye to him "Poyo, big bwother!" Seeing that Sweetie Belle hasn't yet come back from the whole "You're now the most powerful warrior of the universe," Dedede gives her a small slap on the back of her head. "You're with us now?" "Y-yes. Thank you." "Lockwar won't believe what I just witnessed," says Magolor with a laugh. "When I will tell him that I'm now friends with THE Galacta Knight..." "So, which hole do we choose?" then asks Yin-Yarn, wanting to finish this whole business with the Dark God. "Mmh... We could just take one randomly," says Susie. "Or we could start from the left," says Broom Sunglasses. "Or from the right," says Poppy Bros. "Well, let's go with the left," says Sweetie Belle. "Poyo!" agrees Kirby. The filly then hugs him. "It's nice to be back with you." "Now kiss!" shouts Broom Sunglasses. Sweetie Belle sighs, and without looking, she levitates a cannon toward him and fires a stream of fire. With the deed done, she asks "So, should we go?" They all nod while Driblee spits some water at Broom Sunglasses to put down the fire enveloping him. Now decided, they approach the left hole, and jump in it, entering the other dimension, and starting the final part of their long journey.