Lord of the Underworld

From Icaruspedia, the high flying Kid Icarus Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Palutena glasses.png
This article is in need of additional images.
You can help Icaruspedia by adding an image to it.


Lord of the Underworld
Ch23 final.png
Preceded By: Scorched Feathers
Followed By: The Three Trials
Locations: Underworld, Hades's Belly
Major Characters: Hades

Lord of the Underworld is the twenty-third and seemingly final chapter in the storyline of Kid Icarus: Uprising, which has Pit utilizing the Three Sacred Treasures once again. However, rather than facing Hades for the final battle, the angel must experience a remarkably unpleasant journey deep in the bowels of the god himself.

Aerial Mission

The air battle begins in a similar fashion to that of Chapter 9, having Pit dive down into the Underworld while using the Sacred Treasures to plow through many waves of enemies. Palutena states that unlike Medusa, Hades could reside in any part of the Underworld since it's his domain. This forces the angel to go deeper by flying through a long and dark cavern littered with harmful glowing symbols that must be quickly avoided. Before long, he finds himself completely surrounded by darkness, though the god of the Underworld soon appears before him and nearly strikes him with a mighty swing of his fist, initiating the miniboss fight with him.

Hades Miniboss Battle

For the first part of the fight, Hades doesn't attack directly, but mocks Pit and sends more dangerous troops to attack. When Pit gets close enough, he's able to attack Hades while he makes fun of the Three Sacred Treasures, beginning what appears to be the final battle. However, not only are the Three Sacred Treasures completely ineffective, but in an unexpected turn of events, Hades strikes Pit with a powerful blow that obliterates the Sacred Treasures with little effort, leaving him with nothing more than his normal weapon that he equipped. For the second part of this battle, he must use his weapon while avoiding additional swipes and punches from Hades to defeat him. Unfortunately, before Pit can cause very much damage, the lord of the Underworld opts to eat him instead, inhaling a large amount of air to forcefully bring the angel into his mouth and down his evil gullet.

Attacks

  • Vulcan Jab: Hades throws several rapid punches, releasing fist-shaped balls of purple flame.
  • Claw Swipe: Hades teleports away and swipes Pit with his claws in either a horizontal or vertical motion.

Ground Mission

Pit soon wakes up and realizes that he's inside the belly of Hades, much to his disgust. He discovers that he's unable to speak to Palutena from this location and must rely on his own wits to make it out alive. Surprisingly, Hades himself is still able to communicate with Pit and initially attempts to expel him "the old-fashioned way", but to no avail. This ground mission is filled with new cellular forms of traditional enemies that more or less attack in the same way as their normal counterparts. After defeating some of these creatures at the mission’s start, Pit must proceed down a hall filled with cell walls that have to be attacked to temporarily dispatch them. This leads to a twisting path containing moving platforms that are guarded by many more cellular monsters. Eventually, the angel makes it to a large room filled with blood vessels that can be used like Grind Rails, which prove to be very useful in getting him across the lake of bodily acid below. Upon making it to the other side, he rides one more blood vessel blocked by multiple destructible walls, eventually landing at the very center of Hades's stomach. Appearance-wise, this area is much less biological than the rest and resembles a circular room surrounded by a swirling vortex. Hades comically attempts to hurt Pit by punching himself in the gut, causing his entire damaging arm to extend across the room before being pulled out. After this fails, the god grows hungry and resorts to eating his own troops and some other inanimate objects such as ruins and boulders. During this time, which includes a heated moral discussion about eating souls, Pit must battle a plethora of dangerous non-cellular enemies that include an Erinus, a weapon-stealing Pluton, and even a massive Crawler. Between each wave of enemies, he must also watch the ground for shadows of falling objects to avoid getting crushed. Upon clearing this room, Pit can advance down a tunnel guarded by more cellular enemies, although it isn’t long before the area begins to shake. Hades reveals that Viridi is laying siege to his forces and seemingly ignores the angel for the rest of the chapter to deal with her. It isn't long before Pit reaches a bridge leading to a chamber containing Hades's Heart.

Intensity Gates

A single Intensity Gate that requires a high difficulty setting of at least 8.0 lies just beyond a set of lifting platforms partway through the level. It contains a Treasure Box with a strong weapon.

Zodiac Chamber

The game’s second-to-last Zodiac Chamber can be found in the room with the grind rails. After riding across to the other side, Pit can turn around to take one of the rails back, which will lead him straight to the chamber containing the Aquarius Blade.

Boss Battle

Upon entering the chamber, Pit discovers that the heart of Hades acts independently of its owner and can freely walk around on its two stubby legs. Despite its adorable appearance, this boss is one of the toughest in the game due to its quick and unpredictable movements, as well as the complex, grid-like structure of the arena. Hades's Heart has the ability to create a nearly identical clone of itself that will eventually explode into a powerful set of flames. These flames can extend across the area in all directions, so a quick reaction time is necessary to avoid this attack. Occasionally, the heart will also become enraged from being hit too much, causing it to sprint around the arena in an attempt to ram Pit multiple times. This attack is very difficult to avoid due to the creature's deceptively fast movement speed, but it's still possible to do so with a number of impeccably-timed dodges. Although the heart can take a lot of punishment, it can be defeated fairly quickly if the aforementioned techniques are put to good use.

Attacks

  • Mine: The Heart will periodically send out a mine that homes in on Pit if he gets too close.
  • Explosive Clone: The Heart creates an exact replica of itself wreathed in a yellow aura that explodes in a cross-shaped set of flames that extend in all directions.
  • Mad Dash: The Heart's strongest attack. After receiving damage, it becomes enraged and charges Pit repeatedly. This attack can only be evaded by well-timed dodges.

Epilogue

Upon depleting its health, the heart will explode and cause Hades a satisfying amount of pain. Before Pit has time to plan his escape, Dark Pit suddenly flies into Hades's Belly on the Lightning Chariot and rescues the angel once again. The Underworld god, despite experiencing excruciating pain, attempts to grab a hold of the duo as they fly out of his chest. Fortunately, Pit and Dark Pit are able to escape just in time and return to a relieved Palutena. Meanwhile, Hades reflects on this painful experience and amusingly exclaims "but hey, at least I’m not dead!"


Kid Icarus: Uprising chapters
Chapters 1: The Return of Palutena2: Magnus and the Dark Lord3: Heads of the Hewdraw4: The Reaper's Line of Sight5: Pandora's Labyrinth of Deceit
6: Dark Pit7: The Seafloor Palace8: The Space-Pirate Ship9: Medusa's Final Battle10: The Wish Seed11: Viridi, Goddess of Nature
12: Wrath of the Reset Bomb13: The Lunar Sanctum14: Lightning Battle15: Mysterious Invaders16: The Aurum Hive17: The Aurum Brain
18: The Ring of Chaos19: The Lightning Chariot20: Palutena's Temple21: The Chaos Vortex22: Scorched Feathers23: Lord of the Underworld
24: The Three Trials25: The War's End