The Wielder Trials (Brunch Canyon)

"Hate to bring up my age-old drama… but I’m sure thay’s why this place got so messed up. We’re gonna have to face it together."
- Chicory

The Wielder Trials are four chapters that can be completed in any order following Chapter 5. One of the trials takes place in Brunch Canyon.

Summary

Pizza finds Chicory at the entrance to Brunch Canyon. She says that this is the last trial she did, and the last time she spoke to Blackberry. She says that they’ll have to face the unresolved drama together, and to follow the river to the source of the corruption.

Right before Pizza reaches the largest corrupted tree, they find Chicory. They ask her what happened, and she explains. This is typically meant to be a ceremonial step, a simple passing-on from teacher to student. However, when Blackberry was supposed to do this with Chicory, she had changed her mind, and decided that Chicory was not yet worthy of the brush. They had a heated argument, where Chicory’s repressed emotions about Blackberry’s unreachable standards finally came bursting out. The argument sprouted a black tree between them, and Chicory took the brush and stormed off, saying that she’ll be Wielder, with or without Blackberry’s blessing.

The unresolved emotions lingered after their confrontation, causing Brunch Canyon to be overrun by corrupted black trees. Pizza has to navigate through this corruption and find the large black tree in which they fight an apparition of Blackberry. This is the only Wielder Trial to involve a boss fight.

After the boss fight and at the start of the next chapter, Chicory finds Pizza floating down the river. Pizza wakes up after being pulled out in Brekkie. Pizza tells Chicory what they saw, and says they think she should talk to Blackberry about it. Chicory responds that if Blackberry has something to say to her, she can say it herself. She also remarks that Blackberry’s appearance in the corruption confirms that they are coming from the brush.

Chicory then remembers the actual trial. The theme is “master passing on to student,” where the student (Pizza) earns the respect of their master (Chicory), and the master accepts the student. Pizza asks if they’ve earned her respect, and Chicory laughs a bit, saying they’ve done so much more. Chicory formally accepts Pizza with a hug.

Boss

Though the boss of this chapter does not have an official name, it is often referred to as Boss 6 or by its backing track MONSTER.

This boss mimics the form of Blackberry and represents her regret over how she treated Chicory.

Dialogue

Before the fight:

Boss: She's gone.

Boss: I made a huge mistake...

Boss: I... I should never have...

Boss: How did I push her so far away?

Boss: How could I let this happen?

Boss: I...

Boss: I'm a MONSTER.

Mid-fight, part 1

Boss: No. She never understood.

Boss: What it really takes...

Boss: Why I have to be this way.

Boss: It's not my fault!

Boss: She's WEAK!

Mid-fight, part 2

Boss: It's not my fault...

Boss: She should have listened to me.

Boss: But then...

Boss: Why do I feel so guilty?

Boss: Did I MAKE her like this?

Boss: Why couldn't I just fix this?

When defeated

Boss: I just wanted to help.

Boss: I wanted to maker her perfect,

Boss: I wanted to be her friend.

Boss: But she's gone.

Boss: And I... I can't fix it...

Boss: She's gone...

Boss: She's... gone...