Mad Scienstein had escaped with barely a glance in his direction. Dark Land had become incredibly hostile to his presence, and yet he was able to simply walk out in the midst of the chaos and war around him.

Morton Koopa's resurrection was a scientific failure, that was for sure. When he and Kamek had decided to revive him, they thought it would be a temporary measure to gain peace and control. But once Morton's powers began to emerge once again, Mad Scienstein realized just what a discovery they had found- in that resurrecting the bones of the undead were simply not an effective way of controlling them. You'd think so! But... it looks like reanimated husks retained too much of their personality.

No, Scienstein had a new experiment in mind.

A scarred, beaten young man sitting on an operating table before him was the subject of such an experiment. He was a living cloud, made from the magical energies of the wind having taken permanent physical form. And he was the perfect recruit.

"All I want to do is kill that monster," King Mallow of Nimbus Land said. At this point, Nimbus Land had completely fallen to ruin. With its sole remaining ruler secluding himself from society and not even returning to his home for over two years now, most of its citizens had emigrated, finding a new home with Lord Huff'N'Puff or adopting the urban lifestyle in Shroom City. Those few who remained had taken over and formed their own agrarian-based society, harvesting the rain from clouds to fuel their subsistence farms. It was admirable, really, what those people were doing.

But Mad Scienstein wasn't one to play on morals. He was a man of science and magic. Using Mallow was simply a means to an end, and that end was research. After Dr. Crygor had so gallantly rushed his new robot armies into production, Scienstein had to keep up with innovations of his own, or else he would lose out completely.

"This experiment, if it succeeds, will make you more than powerful enough to destroy Bowsette," he said. "This is exactly the experiment I was going to use on her had I captured her rather than Morton. In a better world..."

"There is no better world," Mallow said, grimacing and letting his scars light up with electricity. "There is only the doom and gloom of this wretched planet Earth."

"Heh. Well, it seems that you are ready to commence," Scienstein said.

"Only if this makes me into a better warrior," he said.

"If my calculations are right, you will be no warrior," he said. "You'll be a God."

Mad Scienstein flipped the switch, and the machine activated.