The Chaos Vortex (chapter): Difference between revisions

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|precededby= ''[[Palutena's Temple (Chapter)|Palutena's Temple]]''

'''''The Chaos Vortex''''' is the twenty-first chapter in the storyline of ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]''. As its name suggests, this chapter directly follows on the events of the previous mission, with [[Pit]] heading into the deadly [[Chaos Vortex]] to retrieve [[Palutena]]’s soul from the [[Chaos Kin]]. Fitting for this chapter, it includes one of the most frantic and chaotic flight sequences in the game, as well as an arena-style land battle.

Pit’s mission begins directly outside of [[Palutena’s Temple]], although he quickly flies through the dimensional rift leading to the Chaos Vortex. Lead by [[Viridi]] once again, Pit is taken through this realm of pure chaos, filled to the brim with clones of various [[Underworld]] enemies created by the Chaos Kin. Before making it far, a wall of spooky-looking eyes suddenly appears and scares both Pit and Viridi, followed by a barrage of shadowy hands that attempt to block the angel’s path. The situation only gets more bizarre when the area goes completely dark and the colors of Pit become inverted. Upon making it out of this area, his color palette then becomes very dark until it is washed out when he flies through a flowing, midair [[Hot Springs|Hot Spring]]. Shortly after, the Chaos Vortex introduces an exclusive enemy called [[Shadow Pit]], which is essentially an evil clone of the angel armed with his various weapons. As Pit finally makes it deep enough into the vortex, Viridi quickly points out the [[Chaos Kin]] in the distance, beginning a fast-paced race to reach it before the [[Power of Flight]] runs out. Speeding past a deformed underground city, Pit chases the creature through multiple eye-shaped portals leading to areas that resemble locations from ''[[Wrath of the Reset Bomb]]'' and ''[[Magnus and the Dark Lord]]''. During this time, Pit can shoot at the Chaos Kin while avoiding its own shots and clones that try to confuse him. Before long, the chase leads back into the main area of the Chaos Vortex, where everything is seemingly falling apart as the Chaos Kin grows desperate. The monster finally crashes into a floating rock, rendering it defenseless for a short amount of time. It must be shot at and defeated, or else it will quickly fly away and force Pit to restart the mission at the last checkpoint. If defeated, the Chaos Kin will fall to the large platform below, beginning the ground battle.

The ground mission takes place on the single massive platform that the Chaos Kin falls onto, although the creature is nowhere to be found when Pit lands. Instead, it remains invisible and sends an entire army of its clones to battle Pit in separate waves. Being based on the angel’s memories, this army consists of Underworld, Forces of Nature, and [[Aurum]] troops that all collaborate in different ways unique to this level. This mission is made up of 8 distinct waves that must be cleared before facing the Chaos Kin, which are as follows:

*The tenth wave is made up of two dangerous [[Guttler]]s and some Nature troops to feed them. It's best to take out these hungry beasts first, so that they don't attempt to eat the other enemies to grow more powerful.

The Chaos Kin is a fairly challenging boss fight, but not because of its strength. Instead, the creature’s small size and fast movements can make it a very difficult target to hit. Viridi helps to remedy this by spawning multiple weapons on the battlefield called Electrotraps, which can pin down the Chaos Kin for a short amount of time. Otherwise, the monster itself doesn’t attack very often, but can easily disorient Pit by flying circles around him. Dark Pit also proves to be a valuable ally, as he often helps to distract the Chaos Kin to make it easier to hit. When it takes enough damage, the monster will finally explode and release Palutena’s soul.

With her soul given back, Palutena’s body returns from its petrified state and she reawakens. However, the Chaos Kin once again revives itself as a snake-like cloud, but chooses to go after Dark Pit instead. It pulls him off the edge of the arena while Pit frantically gives chase. He begs Viridi to give him the Power of Flight, despite it being used up after the chapter’s aerial mission. She finally obliges, allowing Pit to speed down faster while his wings begin to burn. During this brief scene, Pit must be controlled and lined up with his dark counterpart to capture him and seal away the Chaos Kin once and for all. After doing so, Viridi extracts the two and returns them to [[Skyworld]], where Pit is shown to be unconscious and his wings burned away, exposing the bone underneath. Palutena picks him up and looks to the heavens with sadness as she recalls Pit's wish to fly on his own, knowing that Pit could very well die from his wounds.