Chapter Ten

Mata Nui saw the gravity wave being unleashed by Makuta. As swiftly as he could move, he threw himself at his
foe, grabbing Makuta’s arm. He jerked it up in the air, sending the gravitic power surging into the sky.

It was an act of pure desperation, and pure luck, and pure genius, all rolled into one. The power beam struck the
moons of Bara Magna, adding itself to the power Mata Nui had already sent into space. The moons returned to
their original course, heading for home.

Makuta roared and pushed Mata Nui away, but the hero would not be stopped now. His robot body was minutes away
from failure and Bota Magna and Aqua Magna were rushing toward their reunion with Bara Magna. Mata Nui’s mind
raced. None of this would matter if Makuta won the battle. He had to be stopped.

With a ragged yell, Mata Nui struck Makuta, sending the robot body sprawling backward. He kept up a relentless
attack against the bigger, stronger Makuta, not giving his enemy time to respond. Red lights were flashing all
over his internal monitors. Stress levels on his robot form were well beyond tolerance. Mata Nui’s only hope of
surviving this fight was to conserve energy.

But my survival doesn’t matter, he knew. Only my destiny matters. Others died to give me this
chance. Can I risk less?

It couldn’t last. Both he and Makuta knew that. Just as he pushed Makuta to the furthest northern reaches, the
power in Mata Nui’s robot body ran down. He didn’t have the strength to finish off his foe.

Makuta smashed a metallic fist into Mata Nui’s chest, sending the robot toppling to the ground with a tremendous
crash. Makuta stood over him, triumphant.

“You made an excellent effort,” Makuta said. “But they don’t remember who tried the hardest… only who won. Today,
that is I. Goodbye, brother.”

§ § §

Tahu had found Takanuva again in the midst of the chaos. Between them, they had four pieces of golden armor.
Where were the other two?

“There!” yelled the Toa of Light. He had spotted Gresh in the middle of a fight with a Skakdi, golden metal
visible in the Glatorian’s satchel. The two Toa raced to his side, using a combination of heat and light to fell
his opponent.

“The armor!” said Tahu. “We need it!”

“What?” said Gresh, even as Takanuva started pulling the pieces out of his bag. “All right, take it. What’s it
for?”

“We don’t know,” said Takanuva. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Hurriedly, Tahu clamped five of the armor sections onto his own crimson armor. Then he removed his Mask of
Shielding and replaced it with the golden one.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Takanuva.

“I haven’t been sure of anything in 100,000 years,” said Tahu, smiling. “So why start now?”

The Toa of Fire concentrated, focusing his thoughts just as he would do to activate a mask power or control
flame. But this time, he was willing the golden armor to do whatever it could to end this battle.

Power surged through him. He screamed as its electricity locked his muscles and suffused his body with a blinding
light. Tendrils of energy shot from him, coiling around every Rahkshi on the battlefield. The creatures fell to
the ground, seized by spasms as their power raced back along the tendrils and into Tahu. As combatants on both
sides watched, the Rahkshi’s armor disintegrated and the kraata slugs inside them exploded into shards of
shadow.

Tahu was still screaming as the energies of hundreds of Rahkshi threatened to overwhelm him. Then, abruptly, the
nimbus of power around him disappeared and he dropped like a stone.

Just that quickly, the battle was over. With the Rahkshi gone, the Skakdi and Skrall were badly outnumbered by
the Glatorian and Tahu’s Toa legion. Some surrendered, others scattered back into the desert to fight another
day.

But no one was celebrating. They all knew victory meant nothing if Makuta killed Mata Nui, and it seemed there
was nothing they could do to prevent that.

§ § §

What none of the fighters on the ground realized was that they already had done more than they realized. Each
kraata was bound to its creator in some way, in this case, Makuta. While he did not feel their pain, he could
sense their deaths, and the loss of so many at once made him hesitate for just a moment. For that instant,
Makuta was paying no attention to the world around him… or the sky above him.

Mata Nui saw it coming. It was why he had forced Makuta to this northern edge of Bara Magna. His last gambit was
about to pay off, and by a miracle, he was going to live to see it.

A shadow fell over the robots, the shadow of the moon of Bota Magna returning to its place of origin. Using the
last of his energy, Mata Nui rose and shoved Makuta backward into the path of the planetoid. Its edge impacted
the robot, smashing in the metallic head with a sickening crunch. Makuta’s armored form began to topple toward
Mata Nui and the Bara Magna desert. Using every bit of mechanical muscle he possessed, Mata Nui caught Makuta
and pushed him aside, causing the massive robot to fall onto the Black Spikes. The impact of the robot crushed
the mountains to powder, even as the twin collisions of Bota Magna and Aqua Magna shook the entire world.

The three fragments of Spherus Magna were one once more. Destiny had been achieved. But the journey was not yet
at its end.