"...Void." Hyness took a moment to think and scratch his nose. "Void... My lord has finally arrived!" He raised his hands in celebration before widening his chameleon-like eyes. "What is it doing here? How?! Why is it inside a dark ball of despair?  If that rock isn't gonna hit Popstar... Then what is the arachnid's plan?!" He asked many rhetorical questions.

After watching the old man floating in circles, the two pranksters looked at each other with a confused expression. "Well, that guy is cuckoo crazy." The jester sat on the floor. "Let's go home, I wanna eat something. But try to make sure it will be something good!" Magolor facepalmed right after.

The egg-shaped wizard gained some courage and went to ask the living ancient what in the name of Void he was talking about, at the same time, the meteor destroyed one more planet. It was getting closer and closer to planet Popstar...

"Hey, sir..." That managed to make Hyness stop with his rambling. "What is that Void thing you're always mentioning?" The moment Magolor finished his sentence, the old man gasped in disbelief. "What do you mean by that, kid?! I thought you did your homework!" Seeing that his fan only shrugged, he decided to explain the situation.

"Void is the creator of this universe, my lord who shall never be forgotten." He paused for a moment, remembering the tragic days of his life as a corrupted maniac. "I heard from it in a book; and depending on which emotion it feels, Void can create new and extremely powerful beings..."

Suddenly, everything made more sense to the blue orb, the thing they just saw is covered by extreme amounts of dark matter that condensed into a rocky structure. "The one who wished nothing but to destroy the whole universe, Void Termina, is the only creation I know about... Hold on a second, egg." Hyness watched the planet slowly being destroyed.

"The vision... It finally makes sense! Void was turning black... A black meteor... With enough energy to give a megalomaniac hungry for revenge... The strength needed to rule the entire universe." The two of them gasped and looked at each other while the purple jester only watched in disinterest.

"We gotta get back to Popstar and warn Kirby!" Magolor said that uncomfortably, great, another one wishing to rule the universe. "And just when I thought this would be easier due to the crown's absence, the crazy dude can now obtain the power that created all of us..."  He carefully observed Hyness turning the ship on, which caused his friend to giggle in excitement.

"Finally! My body is demanding for some food, and you know what happens when I'm starving." Marx jumped on his ball and gave his partner a knowing look, with him only facepalming in response. "No more Novas for you, one made you crazy enough." Guiding the illogical grape to take a seat, Magolor took a last glance towards the ball of destruction.

"That thing must have been related to the crown's creation; I don't want a Magolor 2.0 causing chaos to the other dimensions..."

---------------------------------------

At the top of the tower, the Dream Friends took some minutes to breathe and calm themselves down after almost dying many times. Bandana Waddle Dee and Kirby removed every dark energy from the place while the eternal partners made sure nothing would make the tower fall apart.

The three girls hugged each other for a few seconds before the lightning mage remembered something really important to her, causing her younger sisters to focus on something else. Completely ignoring the pain she felt, Zan went under the floating crystal in the hope of releasing her friend from it.

Just as she reached there, Taranza gave the prison a last punch that managed to break it. What the spider didn't think of was that he had no energy to float, so he began to fall, causing the girl to act on instinct. She then dropped her weapon and extended her two hands, managing to catch the depressive being in bridal style.

"Uhh..." The two quickly realized the position they were in, which made her turn a deep shade of red as she dropped him in an unkind way, merely decreasing the damage that would be given to his body. "Ouch..." Taranza rubbed his head as he slowly got up from the fall, which happened right before Zan realized what she had just done.

When the arachnid gained enough strength to float again, the first thing he wanted to do was to check if the lightning mage was okay. "Are you okay?" The so-called friends said at the same time. "I-" "You first." It was unbelievable, so she decided to end the awkwardness between them by giving him a slight punch on his 'shoulder'.

"You were the one trapped, I insist." The girl made a gesture for him to start talking, but the selfless guy refused to prioritize his needs. "And you were the one who almost died and has the FACE BLEEDING!" As Taranza entered a state of panic and searched for a way to heal her wound, Zan stopped him, indignant by what she saw.

"Would you stop being so thoughtful and start focusing on yourself just once?! Void, just stop!" She looked at him with an angry expression, hoping that strong emotions would help relieve her melting heart. The spider only looked back with an emotionless face that quickly disappeared as the two laughed.

"Come here, you feisty girl." What happened next was something unexpected to the lightning mage, Taranza pulled her to a tight hug with no prediction of releasing her. "..." With her newly uncovered feelings, what once was manageable for the girl became extremely hard; that in mind, she just stood there with an embarrassed face.

"You came back, you protected me like you said you would." Oh. That was the reason for the hug; Zan then felt something wet on her neck, causing her to end the hug and look at his tearful face. "You don't realize how important that is to me, Zan. A friend's loyalty is something I craved for years, thank you." He wiped the remaining tears away.

For the love of Void, in just a single act, the lightning mage broke. The boy was way too sincere for her to handle. "I can't believe I actually snapped at you. But seriously, promise me that you will take care of yourself." She grabbed the weapon on the ground, but her eyes never stopped looking at him with concern.

"I will try my best, now bow to your king." Taranza dramatically pointed at her while he tried his best not to laugh. Getting into the game, Zan did what he said before she chuckled to herself. "Now that my loyal protector has completed her duty, I promise that the next time something happens, my focus will be on myself. You may get up now."

As soon as they stopped with their little act, the two laughed their heads off, which brought attention to the others. King Dedede rushed to pat his friend on the back. "I'm so glad you're okay, pal. I saw ya trapped a few days ago, I can't maintain our chip business without ya." The bird smiled.

"Indeed, my old friend. Indeed." Putting two of his hands together, Taranza used three more to wave at his friends; the last hand was holding Zan's wounded one, it was a way of making sure nothing bad would happen to her. Without even noticing that, the blonde mage involuntarily gave his hand a gentle squeeze, which strangely calmed her down.

Meta Knight only waved back since he had never interacted much with the spider; on the other hand, Bandana Dee jumped in excitement as every problem seemed to be over. "Taranza! I missed you!" Kirby made his way to hug the floating guy, who also hugged back. The puffball nodded to the waddle dee as a way to inform him it was dance time.

The man in armor didn't want to do this, but Dedede's actions caused him to change his mind. While the four heroes did their dance from Return to Dreamland, the two girls went to greet the former prisoner. 

"Yo, Taranza!" Flamberge shook two of his hands like she did when she first met him. "Why, hello there, Miss Flamberge." The spider smiled at the two girls. "Zan here was so worried about you." The lightning mage widened her eyes and shook her head, begging for her sister not to tell her secret.

"Oh, was she?" Tilting his head in his friend's direction, Taranza playfully smiled. "Totally. She even crie-" The moment Flamberge said that, she was interrupted by her older sister. "NOTHING!" She bashfully looked away. "I don't cry! She is exaggerating! I only recall four times in my life where I actually cried." 

The red-haired girl looked at the arachnid and mouthed 'she cried' to him, which made Taranza chuckle for a bit. After deciding to say something, Francisca saw something that took her by surprise, the two were still holding hands. 

"Okay, Zan, we believe you. Now tell us the time you lost to a bowlcut intellectual by a landslide." The bluette put a hand on her hip, she knew exactly how her sister would react.

Just as expected, the blonde girl slightly gasped and began crossing her 'arms'. She froze when she noticed that during the last few minutes, she didn't let go of his hand; the mage then let go of it and nervously did what she intended to do. "N-negative. I almost won that battle." Zan blew a strand of hair away.

"Now that you have mentioned it..." The arachnid rubbed his chin and fixed the scarf he wore; everything about that moment amused him, if only things were as this entertained with his lost queen... "How did you manage to last that long against my counterpart? He was using his powers and mine. Very impressive."

Zan smiled after hearing his complement, only stopping when the cut on her face caused her to wince in pain and put a hand above it. "I'm a quick learner, his attack patterns aren't that different from yours." She looked at the fading clouds above her. "It was the cloud and his impossible combos that got the best of me."

Right as she stopped talking, Francisca made sure to take care of her wound as the short tempered gal made an angry expression. "Don't remind me of that liar! He is gonna pay for hurting my family! Where is he?! I wanna make every fiber of his body burn! I'M FLAMING HOT!!" The girl punched the air, which confused them.

Taranza then made a desperate expression as he remembered his last conversations with his doppelganger, an action that ignited the anger inside the blonde mage. "I've seen that look before..." She lightly pushed the bluette to the side. "It's the same look he made at the party..."

"Did that emo boy hurt you?!" Zan searched for possible wounds on his body, bringing shyness to the floating gentleman; the guy definitely needed to learn how to receive attention from others, but he wasn't used to it. "Z-Zan!" He felt goosebumps when she checked the back of his head, hearing a sigh of relief when she only saw the same two marks.

"Weird... There isn't a single cut on your body..." The blonde girl scratched her head while her two sisters only looked at each other. "Why do I feel that the excess of protectiveness she has is gonna become a problem for later?" Taranza thought as he used the returning magic of his.

"Don't worry, miss Partizanne, all he did was trap me in that floating crystal... And steal all of my magic..." He sighed and looked around. "Not forgetting about the part where he destroyed a part of my castle and ripped every picture I've had of Sectonia..." The expression he made changed to one that radiated sadness as he looked down.

Francisca was the one who knew the least about him, but she wouldn't let that prevent her from doing something. "Hey..." She patted him on the back. "If you want to, we could help you fix your castle." Her efforts were to no avail as the spider only sighed in response. 

The next one who tried to raise his spirits was the red-haired girl. "You know what? I'll put you on the first row to watch this fiery person here-" The fire mage pointed at herself using a thumb. "Burn him into smithereens!! Watching a person who hurt you just BURN AND BURN always manages to calm myself down." Flamberge rubbed her hands and smirked.

In response to her futile attempt at comforting the depressed spider, the ice mage facepalmed. "My dearest sister, I don't wanna be rude, but you don't know how to do that." She touched the fiery girl's shoulder. "Meh, I'll check what the others are talking about." In just a few seconds, Flamberge 'shrugged' and walked away.

"Girls, you don't need to do anything for me." Taranza made a gesture with four of his hands informing them to stop; the last two were used to create the tiniest an energy orb could get, proving to himself that his powers were coming back.

Meanwhile, the bluette whispered in the blonde girl's ear. "Sis, is he always so selfless?" Zan nodded and groaned. "Yes, and it annoys me a lot." She whispered back.

"Listen, bowlcut." The lightning mage caused her sister to giggle, the youngest one was impressed that Zan still used that name. "Look at me..." Her tone of voice became shockingly softer as the spider released the angst he stored before.

"I'm terrible with this emotional stuff, you know that already." She chuckled to herself. "I have no idea how difficult it was for you to lose your queen, your story can't make me understand everything..." All they could hear was pure silence.

"I may have many flaws and a short-tempered persona, but if there's anything you need, I'm here for you." She finished with a small smile on her face, which caused Taranza to put three hands on his hip and smile. "Thanks, Zan, I appreciate it."

As Francisca watched the moment in front of her, she gaped at her sister incredulously. "Zan, how did you do that? Even I couldn't calm him down. I don't wanna brag, but I'm pretty good at those things." The girl in blue got a single shrug as a response.

"I don't know, Franny." Zan forced a smile. "It just feels natural when I'm with him." 

The bluette smiled and pulled the blonde girl into a tight, but short, hug. "I'm so proud of you, sis. You have no idea." The moment in front of the spider was extremely wholesome, everything seemed too good to be true.

The moment Taranza entered a state of relief, a loud sound interrupted everyone's thoughts. Francisca let go of her sister to check what was happening. The lightning mage got a hold of her own weapon and got into a fighting position, all while Taranza narrowed his many eyes at the two revengeful girls.

Turns out that the noise came from Hyness' spaceship, which slowly landed beside them. The ship's door opened and revealed three beings, two of them worried and one filled with excitement. "Great! I was just thinking about you!" The puffball himself went in their direction, but Hyness extended an arm to stop him.

"Round child, I'm afraid I don't have the good news you expect from me. Wait..." Looking around him, the old wizard scratched his nose. "Is this the kingdom in the sky? I was expecting something more... exuberant..." Just as he finished his sentence, a pillar made out of stone crumbled from the damage done in the last hours.

From the middle of the small crowd, Taranza appeared as he put three of his hands together with the other three. "I apologize if your expectations were not achieved, but my doppelganger redecorated the whole place. Trust me, the old colors are better." He sighed and gazed upon the tragedy his castle became.

"Spider!" Hyness said. "It seems that your capture was terminated, did the arachnid do something preoccupying?" Completely changing the topic, the living ancient caused everyone to look at Taranza with his words. 

Taranza gulped and looked to the floor below him, he never received that much attention, or any attention, to be precise. Seeing that the guy wasn't gonna talk so soon, Zan raised her hand for permission to talk. "Give him a moment to breathe, you have no idea what he went through."

"Excuse me?! I have no idea?!" Dedede put a hand on his chest and gasped, his pride slowly taking over. "The whole reason Taranza met every single one of you is because HE captured me four years ago!!" The king of dreamland was making the poor boy feel worse, for the love of Void, how many times will she have to make him feel better in just one day?!

"I am not finished yet!!" King Dedede interrupted anyone that dared to raise their voice. "I went through a world of pain and suffering during the last few weeks. I got captured at my own party, was forced to eat terrible food and stayed inside a tiny cell." The bird counted his problems on his fingers.

Before the stressed penguin could say anything else, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee held him from behind. "My sire, you must stop." "Yeah! Everything will get better!" Despite all of their acts, they were tossed to the side by Dedede, who pointed in the blonde girl's direction.

"You're probably feeling super special right now!" Dedede mocked her. "Of course ya are. Taranza only got captured because of you!" Everyone but the three girls gasped; in the meantime, Marx was sleeping at the corner. "What?! Ya didn't know?"

"I don't get why you all like her." He began, releasing all the stress he stored since chapter 12. "I did everything I could to help you; I threw a party that no one appreciated, helped this weirdo with his fancy dream..." That caused Hyness to angrily frown. "Fancy dream?! I'll have you know that-"

Hoping that this moment wouldn't destroy everybody's friendships, Francisca and Flamberge tried to calm their adoptive father as the oldest girl started to lose control of herself. 

"But after all of that, this little brat REFUSES to like me!" Kirby felt a dark aura coming from his king, so he checked for clues, only to see a tiny tentacle that came from the mirror grabbing Dedede's leg.

"What is your problem, girl?" Dedede was awakening the fury inside of Zan, whose fingers began to conduct electricity. "What are you so selfish? The world doesn't spin around ya, this story doesn't have a protagonist." He crossed his arms.

Just as the two were about to fight each other, Taranza got in the middle of them. "Mes amis, you all need to calm down, this is what he wants, discord." In response to his commentary, the lightning mage sighed and put down her weapon. "Fine, bowlcut."

King Dedede, on the other hand, had no plans to stop. However, when he raised his hammer, Kirby cut the tentacle using his sword, which caused the bird to fall on the ground. With alerted eyes, the Dream Friends looked at each other, taking maximum care not to start another argument.

"Ugh... I feel tired..." Dedede said as he got up and returned to his senses. "It was dark magic." Kirby showed them the destroyed tentacle, bringing a gasp to the six-handed being. "This thing amplifies its host's negative feelings. Dark Taranza threatened to use them on me. He set us up." Taranza felt shivers.

"Oh... Did I say something offensive?" The penguin looked to the side and saw the blonde girl forcing a smile. "No, not at all." She nervously laughed before turning to face her sisters and Hyness, who began to talk:

"That despicable arachnid is ridiculously clever, in fact, that's why I wanted to ask our staggered and speechless spider over here." Hyness made a strange gesture with his hands. "You see that tiny dot over there?" They all looked in the direction pointed by him. "That is dark matter condensed."

The old mage cleared his throat. "The creator of our universe, Void, resides inside of it. And-" Before he could continue, Dedede interrupted him. "Are ya saying that Void actually exists? I thought it was a myth..." Getting an annoyed look as an answer, the king of Dreamland slowly nodded to himself.

While Meta Knight and Kirby looked at