Super Mario Continuance (REITERATED)

Chapter 29: In the Final

Riba continued onwards. He could hear above him that parts of the cave were giving in to the pressure of the abundance of bodies. Then, he heard voices. He hid behind a rock, as two figures continued past him. Again, a language he couldn't understand. He took notice that they were in black cloaks.

Riba followed them deeper in. Careful not to make his presence known. As they walked further, the cave walls turned to what looked like black brick. Riba could tell they were entering some sort of cathedral.

Lined against the walls were statues of everyone he had met in his journey, on paintings of everywhere he went in his journey. In order. It started with Len in the forest back in the Seaside Kingdom. Then, Koi and the Screekers in Honyrup Jungle. Bowser, E. Gadd, the Toads and Luigi in the Mushroom Kingdom, the Aduraices in the mansion. All leading up to Mario against a blank background. That must mean... Mario must lie at the end of his journey!

"Mario?" Riba asked, in disbelief. Out loud. The cloaked figures turned around. "Um... oops..." The figures charged Riba, and knocked him out.

Riba awoke with his limbs held by something stronger than rope, but with the same feel to it. Looking down, he was held up on a cross made of maple tree wood. There was no fire below him, and he wasn't nailed to it. Just held on it. There was a crowd in front of him in a short pit, watching intently through cloaks.

A short, cloaked figure walked into the room, on Riba's level of the cave. "Himeboshi!" The figure shouted, in the same voice of the cloaked figure who killed Abir in the Memory Fragment! Was he their leader?

"Ensei!" The crowd roared.

"Very good," the figure spoke. The figure turned to Riba, and looked up at him. There was a dark matter shrouding the figure's face. It slowly cleared. No way... it was... "It's-a-me~!" The figure sang in a familiar voice. The dark matter went away completely, revealing his face. "Mario."

Riba yelled in surprise, fear, and agony. "Mario! What are you doing here?" Riba cried. "Please, help me!"

Mario shooed him away. Riba felt his heart break. "Speak not, lowly demon," Mario said. "I do not care. I only want to see you suffer... but before that, I guess I owe you an explanation."

Mario walked around the cross as he talked. "Long ago, I was named... Mario. Yes, yes. I was. Now I am Allen. I was such a stupid man, I was weak and frail, and that is because I saw good in everyone. Even you," Mario explained. He pointed a finger at Riba.

"What do you mean?" Riba asked. "Mario, did I do something wrong?"

"Oh, I see your confusion. I am not the Mario you have lived with for the past several years," Mario--- or Allen, explained. "I am a different iteration. In this iteration of ourselves, I never gave you that apple. We had not become close enough by the end of our journey in Evangeline. As a result, you stabbed me and left me to die. You said I would be with the princess and Luigi soon. But you were wrong." Allen cleared his throat.

"My real friends here in Abor's Cave saved me and healed me with their magic," Allen stated, gesturing towards the crowd. "When they found out I was an acquaintance of yours, and that you had failed to kill me, they thought me worthy to be their new leader. As opposed to the pathetic waste of energy everyone calls Riba. So, they ate me. They destroyed the old me, Mario. And what they regurgitated, was me. Allen."

Riba couldn't believe what he was hearing. A thought he always regretted even thinking about was back in Evangeline, how he thought of killing Mario once the curse was broken. But he never would have thought an iteration of him would go through with it. "Mario--- Allen... I'm sorry!" Riba sobbed. "I'm sorry, please, forgive me!"