Mario and Luigi stayed silent as they walked on up towards the door leading to the attic of Toadstool Castle. While they understood that The Ranger made his sacrifice in order to allow the Mario Brothers to continue on with their mission, they couldn't help but feel that they could have done more in order to get him out of that situation. Mario, while torn up about it, wasn't feeling as horrible as Luigi was who always thought The Ranger was a villain that could not be saved into becoming an ally. "How could I have said so those things about him." Thought Luigi as guilt began to overtake him while fumbling around for the attic key. Once he found it, he fumbled with the door lock until it opened up, giving the access to the higher part of Toadstool Castle.

"Let's finish this!" Mario yelled out as both brothers thought that would be the last obstacle that they had to pass in order to get to Bowser. When they went up the stairs that the door contained, however, they realized that it was another floor to the castle. "Wait seriously…" Mario thought as he entered the floor, seeing to trace of Bowser or no trace of any Koopa troops in the area.

"Don't tell me we got to go through more of these paintings." Luigi grumblingly said as he stepped into the new floor of the Mushroom Kingdom. The entry floor was composed of a rotunda having several paintings around the area of the rotunda. There were also a few more doors toward the outer wall of the rotunda, which contained rooms that housed even more paintings for the Mario Brothers. There was also a staircase that would take them to an even higher point of Toadstool Castle. Mario spotted this immediately and thought it would be a good idea to go see if they could bypass this floor.

"Hey Luigi, I think I found a way to bypass this floor." Mario said as he and Luigi made it up the nearby staircase. When they got to the top of it, they spotted another Big Red Star Door. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Mario asked in utter annoyance, seeing yet another Big Red Star Door that would not budge for them. "Great, now we actually got to do these stupid worlds." Mario punched the Star Door hard with his fist, indicating his level of frustration with them.

"Mario, do you want to rest for a bit?" Luigi asked, concerned with the mental wellbeing of his brother. Mario turned back to Luigi, feeling a little embarrassed he had just caused that sporadic outburst of rage.

"No I'm fine Luigi. I promise I won't do that again." Mario went back downstairs with his head down, with Luigi following him suspiciously believing that their mission was getting to both of them as Luigi was feeling a sense of inner rage himself for having to do this mission. However, he was able to cope with it better. "Look, just follow me alright. Hopefully we can get these paintings done soon." Mario walked over to a blank wall and was prepared to jump inside it. Luigi, who was confused by the actions that Mario was about to take, tried to stop him.

"Mario…you do know that it's a blank wall right?" Luigi asked concerned that Mario was going to bust head badly trying to attempt such a stunt. Mario sighed as he looked back at Luigi with the same irritated look he gave to the Big Red Star Door.

"Look at the mirror behind you." Mario replied as he jumped at the wall, disappearing into what seemed like another world for the Mario Brothers to tackle.

"Behind me…" Luigi murmured before turning around to see that Mario was indeed correct. The mirror revealed a painting that was similar to another painting encountered at the main hall a good day or so ago. "Well, here goes a nothing." Luigi murmured to himself as he jumped into the same blank wall as his brother, ready to tackle on their next world.

Meanwhile, Bowser had successfully dragged the princesses into their new cages aboard his new arena that he built for his big battle for the Mario Brothers. Bowser was still ticked off that Peach and Daisy made The Ranger switch sides so suddenly when his entire plan was working. Bowser threw the princess into the cages with brute strength, sending a good amount of pain towards both Peach and Daisy's shoulders which caused them to whelp in pain. Bowser just let out a chuckle in amusement of this discovery. "Serves you two right," Bowser said as he cast angry glares upon the princesses. "For running my apprentice."

"Why do you care anyway?" Peach replied at Bowser, causing Bowser to focus his attention on her. "If I remember correctly, you were going to off him anyway."

"While that may be true Peach, I was going to tell him AFTER KILLING THE MARIO BROTHERS!" Bowser shouting angrily the last part of her statement, causing Peach to be shaken yet again.

"Any second he could blow a fuse and off both Daisy and I." Peach thought as she edged away from Bowser into the back part of her cage, and laid down.

Daisy, seeing her friend seeing visibly shaken again, cast an angry glare at Bowser, which caused Bowser to glare straight back at her. "Can you at least tell me why it's so dark in here?" Daisy asked as she had to squint hard just to catch a glimpse at Bowser. "I can barely see five feet in front of me."

Bowser irritably sighed before clearing his throat to respond. "It's because this part of the world is charged with all the Power Stars brought here. It's sort of a sign to indicate that those blasted plumbers are here with my goods. Once they are brought to my hand, you'll be able to see all the new nuances of my domain here." Bowser said with a cackle as he prepared himself to leave to check on the progress of the Koopa base installation below.

"But wait," Daisy said, stopping Bowser instantly in his tracks. "If this place doesn't light up until the Power Stars were collected, how could you have built this arena and the base below."

"Surely you've heard of the great technology such as flashlights and spotlights my naïve princess." Bowser responded with a taunting chuckle, angering Daisy even more which caused her to rattle her cage. "Of course I had to turn them off here in order to conserve energy and all that eco environment crap the Mushroom Kingdom preaches. Think of being surrounded in darkness as punishment as trying to interfere with my grand plan." Bowser then set off in a warp pipe to oversee the Koopa base construction.

Daisy then sighed as she rolled back in her cage as tears rolled down her face. She was really scared, not because of the darkness and not because of Bowser, but because she and Peach were helpless at this point to try to help the Mario Brothers continue on their journey. "Oh Mario Brothers…," Daisy thought as she laid down while muffling cries away from Peach's ear sight trying to sleep. "We really need you now."