The Water Crystal is the blue and second stongest elemental crystal. The Fire Crystal has very high attack and high health but somewhat low defense. The Fire Crystal is red and is the strongest elemental crystal. In battle, Culex is aided by four seemingly sentient crystals – the Earth Crystal, the Fire Crystal, the Water Crystal, and the Wind Crystal. Mario, Toadstool, and Geno face Culex with the Elemental Crystals in combat. If Mario accepts the challenge, Culex declares "En garde!" and the battle begins. Without any weapon or armor, you have no chance." Mario is then forced to leave the dimensional rift, but can return as he desires at a later time. If Mario refuses, Culex says, "You are wise to hesitate. The hero can either accept or refuse Culex's offer. The Dark Knight then challenges Mario, who Culex views to have the potential to be the world's "strongest knight," to a battle before he had to leave for his home dimension of Vanda. After Mario enters the dimensional rift, Culex greets the visitors and explains his story.
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The door can now be opened, allowing Mario and company to access Culex in his dimensional vortex. Upon returning to Monstro Town with a Shiny Stone in his possession, Mario attempts to open the sealed door, causing the small crystal to begin reacting, eventually dispelling the magical seal. Mario returns to Culex, perhaps ready to accept the Dark Knight's challenge. To retrieve a Shiny Stone, Mario first must buy the Fireworks from a male mole in Moleville for five hundred coins, then trade the Fireworks for a Shiny Stone from a young mole girl in the same town. The Piranha Plant neighbor of Culex provides a clue to opening the sealed door, reporting to Mario about Culex's obsession with Crystals, and then hypothesizing: "Isn't a 'Crystal' some kind of a shiny rock.or something? I know I've seen those somewhere!" This "shiny rock" is actually a Shiny Stone, a micro-sized crystal that can be acquired in Moleville. Mario and his party discover the mysterious sealed door during their travels to Monstro Town. The seal to Culex's dimensional vortex is eventually broken by Mario, the champion of the Mushroom Kingdom. Before he leaves for his home dimension though, Culex wishes to battle the world's "strongest knight." As such, Culex is forced to return to Vanda without completing the Dark Mage's assignment. However, Culex discovers that Mario's dimension was actually uninhabitable by himself and others of his kind.
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The Dark Knight is sent to Mario's world to fight on behalf of the Dark Mage. According to one of his neighbors, a Piranha Plant, Culex is "always mumbling about Crystal-this and an Evil-that." Despite waiting in a dimensional rift, Culex's next-door neighbors can still hear the Dark Knight talking to himself through the walls. Culex eventually comes to reside in a cross-dimensional region that is found behind a sealed door in Monstro Town, a village of reformed monsters, which is located in Land's End. Before or during the events of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Culex crosses over from the dimension of Vanda to Mario's dimension.