Chapter 8

“Chronicler, wake up!”

Takua struggled to open his eyes. Was that Maku talking? “Please wake up!” she exclaimed.

With a groan, the Chronicler sat up. The battle for Kini-Nui was over. The Rahi were gone and the Matoran were victorious. The Chronicler’s Company surrounded him, congratulating each other on their good fortune.

“You’ve survived!” Maku exclaimed, helping him to his feet.

“I am Highfly Vinesman and deepwood Wayfinder!” Tamaru laughed.

“Vakama will be heartened by this,” Kapura remarked.

“Are we to go on another adventure together?” asked Taipu.

“Rahi disappear, and Matau confused,” said Kongu, explaining their arrival at Kini-Nui. “Thought: Rahi fallback here, to destroy Kini-Nui. So fastfly we come, to aid!”

“The Kini-Nui is safe now,” said Jala. “I think, though, that this day’s trials are far from over. The Toa are still underground.”

“Something strange has happened in Onu-Koro,” said Onepu as Takua turned around. “Whenua says you should come there, and quickly. But not on foot. Take Puku! She followed us all the way here. I think she has been looking for you.”

Puku chortled and chirped as Takua climbed on. “OK, girl,” he muttered. “Let’s go!”

Following the tunnels the Ussalry had arrived from, Takua quickly arrived in Onu-Koro. It was good that Puku knows the way, for many of the tunnels had been barricaded. Takua quickly sought out Whenua.

“You are safe, Chronicler,” Whenua greeted him. “That is good. The Prophesies, then, are still truthful. They say Gali has called on you.”

Whenua guided Takua over to one of the tunnel shafts that had not been barred. “There has been a disturbance in the Great Mine. The Golden Mask you discovered has disappeared, and a passage has opened there. My workers are too afraid to go near it. We believe it is another entrance to the Makuta’s lair. It is your destiny to find the Toa, Chronicler, no matter what the outcome. I hope you have the courage to face it.”

Takua understood, and he hoped he did as well. Bidding Whenua goodbye, he headed for the Great Mine. Now was the time to face his destiny.

When he reached the bottom of the Great Mine, the Golden Mask was indeed gone. He could now approach the pedestal.

When he pushed the button, the pedestal disappeared into the floor. Suddenly, the walls retracted far away from him and the floor itself descended swiftly, down, down into the darkness below. It stopped when he reached the floor of a large, dark chamber.

Takua worked his way forward, past the damaged towers and the lifeless Manas, toward the large, open doorway.

✴        ✴        ✴

Through the doorway, he saw them. All six Toa had assembled around a swirling vortex of debris.

“Makuta!” shouted Tahu. “We have come!”

Before the eyes of the six Toa and the one Chronicler, from the unseen depths of the chamber, a small Matoran stepped forward.

“What?!” exclaimed Tahu in disbelief.

“I have been waiting for you,” sneered the Matoran as he stepped into the light. He was covered from head to toe in pockmarks, corrosion, and ooze.

“But you – you are –” objected Tahu.

“I am that which you are sworn to protect,” rumbled the Matoran.

“Tahu, it’s a trick!” interjected Kopaka. “We must destroy him!”

“Destroy me?” defied the Matoran. “You cannot destroy me. No more than you can destroy the sea, or the wind. Or… the void.”

“You are like the sea?” objected Gali. “The sea bears life! The sea bore us!”

“I bore you,” said the Matoran. “For I am Nothing. And out of Nothing, you came. And it is into Nothing that you will go. I stand with Mata Nui side by side. I am his brother. The people of the world are builders. But look into their hearts… and you will find that they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I WILL destroy you.”

“But…” said Tahu, still not believing, “you are but a Matoran!”

“You expected something else?” asked Makuta. “Something like THIS?!”

And as he said this, Makuta transformed himself, joining with the swirling debris. He reached out with long twisting arms to swat away the Toa, one by one. Even the protective forces of the Hau mask could not protect Onua as Makuta’s arms approached him from behind and took him unaware.

“Our only hope is to work together!” shouted Tahu over the now-roaring sound of the vortex.

Tahu brought the full force of fire upon Makuta in a swirling inferno of flame. Kopaka likewise let loose a stream of swirling ice. Gali directed a twisting torrent of water at Makuta. Lewa unleashed a vortex of his own in a strong gust of air. Onua summoned forth a blast of earth that reaches the Makuta at the same time as a mighty shockwave issued forth from Pohatu’s stomping foot. The converging forces of all six Toa were too much for Makuta to bear.

“You cannot destroy me,” growled Makuta defiantly as his energies dissapated. “For I am Nothing.”

With that, the vortex collapsed and Makuta was gone. It appeared that the Toa had completed their task, for they were now being teleported, one by one, out of the chamber.