Chapter 35
"Are we there yet?" asked Roxas. He saw the clouds ahead, covering a castle.
His companions were tense. The Goomba and the Koopa stared at Toad as if the mushroom man would eat them. Toad ignored them, talking to Demyx about the world around them. Mario stepped up to keep up Roxas' pace, shaking his head in response to the boy's question. He then extended his hand out, on which Roxas shook firmly. Luigi sat on Yoshi, dozing off, only reacting when Yoshi started to hop.
"Waaahhh!" cried the green hat man. Roxas noticed how Luigi seemed to be the lesser of the two brothers, but he kept that to himself. He was busy thinking about the task in front of them.
There has to be more than this, thought Roxas. He remembered how Yen Sid and Merlin looked worried when they tasked Demyx and him to enter into the dream world. Perhaps there is something sinister waiting to happen, but how should he know?
Roxas, having trouble thinking about things, pulls out his journal. He writes down what that cricket would have written. As he concluded his statement, however, a bunch of Goombas and Koopas appeared in front of them.
"Jared, Jacob! What are you doing?!" A big Goomba appeared. "You are not pouncing these demons!"
"Hold up!" Roxas stared in the Goomba's face. "We want to seek the audience of your lord Bowser!"
"Who are you to say that?!" said a random Koopa.
"I am the keyblade wielder-"
"Oh, hey guys, I can wield a keyblade!" A Goomba mockingly said. "Whatever that is!"
"I do not wish to harm any of you, but if I cannot get my way, you will regret it!"
"Don't you lecture us about hurt, wimp!" The group ran towards Roxas. Raising his hands, Roxas displayed two keyblades. The group hesitated too late, and Roxas crushed his opposition. He kept swinging his blades until they were all down in a matter of seconds.
"Woah, Roxas! Too much!" said Demyx.
"Not for these guys!" Roxas pointed in front of him, where a large group of Goombas and Koopas started to move towards the group.
"Well, I guess-" Before Demyx finished, Mario and Luigi rushed towards the enemy. They punched the poor Goombas and Koopas away from Roxas. They unleashed fire balls with the same color as their hats, burning down the ground in front of them.
"Wow, these guys make good allies!" commented Demyx. "Anyways, onto the castle!"
The heroes entered the castle, watching their surroundings. "Who knows if there are traps set up?" said Roxas.
"I SHOULD KNOW!" The voice echoed around them.
"Wait a minute...Bowser?!" cried Toad. "But why is he here?"
"What?" asked Demyx.
"Usually, he is at the end of the castle. He should be in the deepest part-"
"If there is a 'deep' part!" Bowser emerged from the shadows in front of the group. His green shell had many spikes on them, and his red hair matched the fire in his heart. Sadly, it seemed to wither a bit.
"Lord Bowser!" Jacob cried. "What happened to you?!"
"Someone else took the princess this time!" Bowser's words shocked everyone.
"But I saw your ship take Princess Peach!" said Toad.
"Someone took my fleet, my minions, even my new castle! They did this before I announced my treaty!"
"A treaty?!" Toad didn't believe him, nor did Luigi and Yoshi, who were ready to fight. Mario just stared at Bowser, not sure if the giant Koopa was lying.
"Yes! I have grown tired of fighting. I just want what is best for my minions, so I decided to make a treaty so that no one else has to suffer from our fighting. Before I could, however, some boy with a mask attacked my castle. The last thing I remember is..."
Bowser noticed Roxas holding a keyblade. "THAT! The boy was holding something like that thing in front of me, and the next thing I know, I landed in this castle!"
Roxas and Demyx glanced at each other. Another keyblade wielder was here? What did he do to the princess?
"Well, I mean, are you alright?" asked Roxas.
"Yes, I am..." Bowser looked at the boy. "That blade...I think it is called a keyblade."
"How do you know?" asked Roxas.
"A long time ago, way before our time, there was a civilization that used to exist near the Toadstool Castle. According to several tablets, several warriors of light wielded weapons to ward off the darkness. Unfortunately, the darkness almost surrounded this world, until seven lights saved it and split it into several smaller worlds."
"Wait!" exclaimed Toad. "This world...are you talking about Earth?"
"I am talking about an aggregate of all worlds, or rather, all universes."
"We heard of that tale too," said Demyx. "There remained seven lights that keep the world safe."
"The problem with this tale is that it kept out something much worse." Bowser sighed. "I made the treaty for another reason: so that I could escape from the realm of Sleep."
"Wh-what?!" Toad cried. "What are you talking about?"
Roxas saw Mario nodding, understanding where he was. "How did you know about-"
"About the outer universes? Twice, I kidnapped Peach and made a base in space. I found more ruins like the one I mentioned and discovered that some of these keyblade wielders had the ability to travel universes. If we could find my base, then we can locate some of the other things that I have found..."
"That sounds interesting," said Demyx, "but how did you know about the realm of Sleep?"
"Well, Mario and I have had to fight over and over again. It was a loop. There was a tablet that stated this, and I reasoned that this world must have been one of the first, if not the first, worlds that have been asleep."
"We can talk about this, but where is your base?"
Bowser hung his head in shame. "I made it mobile. It could be in any of the sleeping worlds."
"Wait!" Toad exclaimed. "What about the Smash portal?"
Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Bowser smiled. "Umm, is there something that we are missing?" said Roxas.
"The Smash portal leads us to a place where universes meet. Think of it as a way to a very huge tournament. Anyways, we go there, and we should be able to find his castle, or whatever we are looking for."
Jacob and Jared, who were silent, started to speak up. "Should we accompany you, sir?" Jacob asked.
"No. You guys stay here," said Bowser. "This will get nasty."
"Well, we better hurry up and get there!" said Roxas.
They all headed out to the Toadstool Castle. As they left, another figure kept to the shadows, examining them with interest.
"I see...Roxas...the nobody of Sora..." Without hesitation, the figure began to follow them, holding his zanpaktou like and assassin.