The Three Trials
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The Three Trials is the twenty-fourth and penultimate chapter in the storyline of Kid Icarus: Uprising. It has Pit searching for the god of the forge, Dyntos, who originally created the Three Sacred Treasures. As its name suggests, this chapter's ground mission is divided into three distinct trials that must be completed.
Aerial Mission
Pit begins his mission in a strange dimension that belongs to Dyntos, where the angel instantly notices that the Underworld Army, Forces of Nature, and Aurum Fleet are all attacking him. Palutena explains that the mission is to seek out the god of the forge himself, who is said to be one of the most powerful divine beings due to his ability to create nearly anything with his power (including the apparently superior copies of the enemies encountered here). Pit flies on over to Dyntos's Workshop where the elderly god greets him with a nice hello. He promises to help Pit if he can pass his challenge that consists of three trials. After flying through the great hallway of the workshop, Pit enters a room with a large circular platform, where he lands to begin the long ground battle.
Ground Mission
The grounded mission takes place in three parts, one of which is the chapter's main boss itself.
Trial 1
The first trial is the longest of the three, including battles with a variety of enemies and some returning bosses. During the long stair climb you will first have to fight two sets of three different Monoeyes: regular, Aurum copy, and a cellular. The first set of Monoeyes will line up and float down the bottom of the stairs and will not attempt to harm you. The second set will appear after the Monoeyes are either defeated or reach the bottom of the stairs. The Monoeyes will float at the edge of the right of the stairs and later float outside of the stairs circling around the empty space. Further up the stairs an Urgle will drop from the sky to quickly take sight of you to shortly attack. The Urgle is also accompanied by a Monoeye and a centurion grouped together. At the end of the stairs in a little platform an Aurum Claxis awaits and will attack once you approach the enemy. After that is three Flages and a Captain Flare. A door unlocks after clearing the enemies that leads to a copy of the Phoenix that must be battled. This Phoenix is lord Dyntos's creation, although it is fought in the same way as before. Upon defeating the Phoenix, Pit moves on to another wave of returning enemies. A second door unlocks, leading to a second battle with Cragalanche, who still has a "busted keister" that serves as its weak point. After defeating the rock monster, Pit proceeds to battle a final wave of enemies before facing the Space Kraken. This copy of the Kraken appears to fight somewhat differently this time, as it uses its water blast attack more often. Defeating the beast brings the first trial to an end.
Zodiac Chamber
The final Zodiac Chamber in the game can be found during this chapter and contains the Pisces Heal. After going up the elevator at the start of the mission, turn and go down the stairs behind Pit to find this chamber and claim its treasure.
Trial 2
The second trial consists of two consecutive boss battles. However, these bosses are tweaked versions of past battles.
Magnus and Gaol
First, Pit must battle both Magnus and Gaol, who still wears her cursed armor. Dyntos explains that they are not copies, but were actually invited to test Pit in battle. Gaol's true voice can also be heard, and she is revealed to have rejoined Magnus after her defeat during Chapter 2. Because Magnus has no ranged attacks, he constantly tries to attack Pit up close, making him the likely choice to take down first. Once Magnus is out, Pit can focus on Gaol, who uses her attacks less often, but aims very well.
Attacks
- Cape Spin: Gaol spins in place, swatting Pit away with her cape.
- Charge: Gaol charges at Pit.
- Barrier: Gaol creates an energy barrier that reflects ranged shots to protect against frontal attacks.
- Energy Darts: Gaol fires blasts of dark energy in a scattershot pattern.
- Horn Blast: Gaol fires a blast of dark energy from her horns.
- Energy Ball: Gaol fires a slow moving ball of energy at Pit.
- Dark Channel: Gaol plants her hand on the ground, channeling dark energy in front of him which will damage Pit if he steps on it.
- Sword Swing: Magnus performs a three-hit combo with his sword.
- Kick: Magnus performs a dashing kick at Pit.
- Grand Slam: A rare move that Magnus only performs on higher intensities. Magnus spins his sword over his head, causing a small vacuum to draw Pit in before slamming the sword on the ground with great force.
Pseudo-Palutena
When both are defeated, Palutena surprisingly appears in the arena and begins attacking Pit. This battle is very similar to the fight during Chapter 20, but since this Palutena is a fake, she can be fired at. After Palutena is seemingly defeated, she is revealed to be an ugly, scary, purple impostor called Pseudo-Palutena. She was most likely the product of Dyntos' questionable sense of humor. The fight with her is mostly the same as before, with the only change being a new attack where she fires several bolts of red light.
Attacks
- Sky Jump: If Pit wanders to close, Pseudo-Palutena will leap into the air, damaging Pit with the rings of light she leaves in her wake.
- Light Shots: Pseudo-Palutena fires three bolts of light at Pit.
- Light Orb: Pseudo-Palutena fires a slow moving orb of light at Pit.
- Light Drones: Pseudo-Palutena summons two orbs of light that follow Pit and fire lasers for a short time.
- Pillars of Light: Pseudo-Palutena sends out three pillars of Light at Pit.
- Blinding Light: Pseudo-Palutena uses her Mirror Shield to create a blinding flash of light that fills the screen. It deals no damage.
- Luminescent Dash: Pseudo-Palutena surrounds herself in a pillar of light and charges at Pit.
- Halo Blast: Pseudo-Palutena's halo glows and she fires a blast of energy from it.
- Scattershot Light: Pseudo-Palutena fires bolts of red light in a scattershot pattern.
Battle Quotes
- "Feel the shame!" (When summoning Light Drones.)
- "Leave your mark!" (When attacking.)
- "Die already!" (When using Luminescent Dash or Halo Blast.)
- "Time to Die!" (When attacking.)
- "Oh, my head..." (When near defeat.)
Trial 3
This final trial is a boss battle against the Great Sacred Treasure, which was crafted by Dyntos as an upgrade of the original Sacred Treasures. This full body armor suit is not only ten times the size of Pit, but also has a multitude of different forms. This battle has the Sacred Treasure using a variety of laser-based attacks. One of its most dangerous weapons can launch a powerful beam of energy, with only five seconds to get away from the attack's range (shown by a light extending across the ground). If Pit fails to do this, he will be instantly defeated and forced to restart the battle. (Losing Hearts and some power of previously collected weapons in the process) The Great Sacred Treasure won't use this attack again during the fight, likely due to the immense power it requires. After defeating the super weapon, Dyntos will congratulate Pit for completing his three trials.
Attacks
- Dash: The Great Sacred Treasure charges at Pit.
- Fireball: The Great Sacred Treasure shoots fireballs from the gun on its right hand. It will also shoot a charged fireball.
- Lightning Orb: The Great Sacred Treasure fires an orb of lightning at Pit.
- Tornado: The Great Sacred Treasure fires several blue tornadoes at Pit.
- Light Missiles: The Great Sacred Treasure fires several missiles at Pit.
- Energy Bullets: The Great Sacred Treasure fires blue energy bullets at Pit.
- Vacuum Orb: The Great Sacred Treasure fires an orb of dark energy from the gun on its left hand that draws Pit in to deal damage.
- Energy Strips: The Great Sacred Treasure fires several strips of from the gun on its left hand that travel along the ground.
- Mega Laser: The Great Sacred Treasure's strongest attack. It fires a laser from its chest that is powerful enough to destroy half the arena. If Pit doesn't evade it in time, it's an instant Game Over. Afterwards, it uses a smaller version of this attack in a horizontal sweeping motion.
Epilogue
Pit equips the Great Sacred Treasure and takes it for a test drive. While the angel is having fun, Palutena talks to Dyntos that the trials felt a lot harder than they should have been, and the elderly god responds that he might have thrown in a few "freebies". Just after, Pit crashes the Great Sacred Treasure into the ground, causing Palutena to become slightly embarrassed. She then quickly extracts Pit from Dyntos's Workshop to prepare him for the true final battle against Hades.
Trivia
- If one observes carefully at the enemies during the beginning of this chapter, references to several famous retro arcade games are made:
- During the rematch with the Space Kraken, Pit points out that there are some differences in the arena. He may have been referring to the stage's flowing oceanic backdrop, which is now fully animated. Oddly, it was completely static during the original fight with the Kraken in Chapter 8.
- Not counting the Boss Battles bonus chapter, this chapter has the most bosses out of all chapters, with a total of six.
- The ground battle theme for this chapter is a remix of the fortress theme from the original Kid Icarus. This remix is also used as the ground theme for Chapter 7.
- The statement made by Pit in the beginning regarding him confusing Dyntos as the "god of snacks" left many players baffled on what the joke is. A possible explanation is that Pit mistook Dyntos for Dionysus who is the Greek god of wine and parties, as the two gods have somewhat similar names.