Battle in the Great Furnace

"No, Morbuzakh, you have had your season. The time of harvest has come!"
— Toa Metru Vakama, Seeds of Doom

Battle in the Great Furnace
Battle/Conflict
Conflict	Toa Metru attempt to defeat the Morbuzakh
Combatants	Toa Metru Morbuzakh
Location	Great Furnace
Result	Toa Metru win; Morbuzakh killed; Great Furnace destroyed

The Battle in the Great Furnace was a momentous clash between the six novice Toa Metru and the King Root of the formidable Morbuzakh plant. After a near-fatal encounter with Morbuzakh seeds in an abandoned forge in Ta-Metru and another struggle with Morbuzakh thorns in the outer chamber of Ta-Metru's Great Furnace, the Toa Metru finally encountered the King Root in the Furnace's inner chamber. Over the course of the battle, the Toa temporarily exhausted their Elemental Powers before finally defeating the King Root with the power of the Great Disks.

Goals

Toa Metru

• Defeat the Morbuzakh King Root

Morbuzakh

• Defeat the Toa Metru

Summary

Prologue

After the successful collection of the six Great Disks, the Toa Metru regrouped in the Great Temple in Ga-Metru to plan their next course of action to stop the Morbuzakh's reign of terror over the city of Metru Nui. Nuju revealed the existence of a King Root of the Morbuzakh, and the Ta-Matoran named Nuhrii accurately guessed the King Root's location to be the Great Furnace. Nokama decided that Vakama should be in charge, as the Toa were traveling to his home Metru and he naturally knew it better than they did. Over their objections, the six Matoran who had discovered the locations of the Great Disks - Nuhrii, Vhisola, Orkahm, Tehutti, Ahkmou, and Ehrye - came along as well.

Morbuzakh seeds

The journey to the Great Furnace was interrupted by a sighting of Vahki order enforcement robots. The Toa and Matoran quickly took shelter in an abandoned forge. Suddenly, Nuju felt something hard strike his armor and bounce off. After it happened twice, Nokama retrieved the object. Just as she noted that it looked like a kind of seed, more began to fall. As soon as the Morbuzakh seeds hit the ground, tiny vines emerged from the shells and grabbed onto whatever was closest with unnatural strength. All the Matoran and Toa were quickly overcome by the onslaught - save one. Nuju had anticipated the danger, quickly taken a deep breath, and let it out when entangled to give himself some extra room to create an Icicle to cut through the vines that had captured him. He then swiftly rescued Nokama, and the two released the others. The heroes rapidly made their escape and, on Vakama's orders, Nuju and Onewa destroyed the building, burying the plants.

Morbuzakh thorns

From there, the Toa progressed unimpeded to the Great Furnace. Upon entering its outer chamber, the Toa encountered small, seemingly undefended Morbuzakh vines. Nuju almost exhausted his elemental ice power attempting to hinder the vines' growth, and the Toa were suddenly beaten back by a hail of thorns from the walls of the furnace. The six Matoran were also trapped in the outer chamber by the thorns. From his memories of a carving in the Archives, Tehutti ordered his fellow Matoran to concentrate. The result was a single being named the Matoran Nui, formed by the merging of the six Matoran. The Matoran Nui dodged the thorns, smashed the door to the Great Furnace's inner chamber with one blow, and commanded the Toa Metru to enter and defeat the Morbuzakh. The Toa charged in to the final conflict while the Matoran Nui, its task complete, made its escape from the furnace.

Morbuzakh King Root

The Toa Metru battle the King Root.

Upon entering the inner chamber of the Great Furnace, the Toa discovered that the Morbuzakh King Root really required no seeking - it was there, in the heart of the furnace. After threatening them, the Morbuzakh proceeded to do battle with the Toa. The Toa fought well, but with no experience in rationing their elemental powers, they exhausted them and were slowly but surely driven back. Vakama suddenly stopped fighting, as did the other Toa. Falling for the trick, the Morbuzakh grabbed the six Toa and brought them close to itself once again. As Vakama and his fellow heroes held up the Great Disks, pure power emerged from the disks, forming a sphere around the Morbuzakh King Root that cut it off from its vines and its energy source. As the Toa made their escape, the Morbuzakh destroyed the Great Furnace in a desperate struggle for survival even as its vines crumbled to dust. The sphere lifted the King Root into the air. Suddenly, the sphere dissipated, and the King Root fell back into the rubble of the Great Furnace with a resounding crash and crumbled into nothing.

Aftermath

With the King Root gone, Morbuzakh vines around Metru Nui turned to dust. The Morbuzakh plague was thus ended. The Toa Metru realized themselves to be heroes, and decided to travel to the Coliseum to introduce themselves as Toa to Turaga Dume. What the Toa could not know was that the Morbuzakh had actually been working under orders from Teridax, who was disguised as Dume.

Appearances

Books	Comics
Novels BIONICLE Adventures 2: Trial by Fire Guides BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe (M)	BIONICLE BIONICLE 18: Seeds of Doom