As Susumu approached the castle, however, a feeling of hopelessness started to come over her. She hadn't made it this far on her own. She was no hero. She had so many other people helping her up until now... There was no way she could save everyone by herself.

"Susumu!" Suddenly, a screech broke through her thoughts. "Are you alright? Azamir... Did he bring you here too?"

Susumu looked up to see... "Martcha...?" she asked, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. "W-what are you doing here?"

"I... I sensed something was wrong around here," Martcha answered. "Somehow, I had a feeling you would be here. But..." She looked concerned. "What about you? Did... Did Azamir hurt you?"

Susumu shook her head. "But, I-I'm here because..." Tears started to fill her eyes. "Azamir... He... He took all my friends. I-I want them back! But... I don't think I can do this on my own..."

Martcha landed on Susumu's shoulder to comfort her. "Susumu. It is not coincidence that we met here," she began. "As you may know, I know all about destiny, and... I feel as though it was ours to see each other again. Together, I know we can save your friends."

Susumu looked up at her. "You... Would really help me?" she asked.

"Of course," Martcha answered. "It's... Difficult to explain, but... I have a very strong connection to the things that live on this planet. That includes you and your friends, Susumu."

"M-Martcha... Thank you," she sighed.

Martcha nodded, taking off into the air again. "Now, where do you suppose your friends might be?"

"I... Don't even know," Susumu admitted. "I was just... Going to head towards Azamir's castle and see where that took me..."

"If that's the case, then to Azamir's castle we go!" Martcha declared, surprising Susumu with her enthusiasm. "Come on, let's go free everyone! And smile a little bit, okay? You're going to get to see everyone again soon!"

It wasn't long after they had started searching, however, that Susumu saw a familiar figure in the distance. "Hey!" she pointed at the figure. "Is that-"

As soon as Raya heard Susumu's voice, he turned around to warn her away. When he did so, however, he also revealed that his face had been stolen. "R-Raya!" Susumu and Martcha quickly made their way to Raya's side. "W-where's your face...?"

"Susumu!" Martcha called out. "We've got trouble!" When Susumu turned around, Martcha was firing a green beam at a slime that had Raya's face on it. "We have to defeat this thing to save Raya!"

Susumu nodded, and swung her microphone at the slime. Somehow, with Martcha fighting alongside her, she felt a lot more... Sure of herself, as it were. Martcha was a lot stronger than Susumu expected. She was starting to get a bit flustered at how strong she was, in fact. Not that she doubted her when she said she was a god, but-

And suddenly Susumu was caught off guard when the slime hit her while she was thinking. "Susumu!" Martcha gasped. "A-are you okay?! Um... Let me..." She twirled her staff around a bit, surrounding Susumu in a green light.

As the green light enveloped Susumu, she suddenly felt a lot stronger than before! She stood up, twirling her microphone again. "T-thank you, Martcha!" She gave one last swing of her microphone, taking out the slime and freeing Raya's face.

Susumu took a look at Raya, concern filling her eyes. "R-Raya...?"

"...Wan!" Raya jumped up in excitement as his face returned. "Susumu! That was amazing! You're a hero!"

"No, not really," Susumu sighed. "I didn't save you all by myself. I had some help from Martcha."

Raya's eyes grew as big as saucers when he heard that. "Martcha?!" He demanded. "You're... being trained by the Great Sage herself?! Aww, man! That's so cool! Wish Martcha would train me too..."

"Hey, uh, how did you even get here?" Susumu asked.

"Um... I dunno!" Raya answered. "Azamir just kinda dropped me here... And when I tried to attack him, he took my face and stuck it on that blob thing! I dunno who he thinks he is, but that's low! Where did he go anyway?! Come on, I'm gonna take him down myself!"

"Well, we're not just gonna leave you here," Susumu said. "And we're headed up to the castle ourselves. You, me, and Martcha, we've still gotta find everyone else!"

Raya then looked up at Martcha, his eyes sparkling like two sparkly green things. "Hey, Martcha? Does this mean you're gonna train me too?"

Martcha put a paw on her chin. "Well, I don't see why not... We'll all need to work our hardest to defeat the Dark Lord..."

Raya's tail started wagging harder than ever when he heard that. "Wahoo! You hear that, Susumu? We're the Great Sage's apprentices now!"

"Um, excuse me," Martcha spoke up again. "Before we celebrate, did you happen to see anyone else around here?"

Raya stopped to think for a minute. "Actually, yeah, I did!" He finally answered. "There was another dog who was even smaller than me! And he was with a girl in purple..."

"That sounds like Priff and Vinny," Susumu stated. "If Raya had his face taken, that means... We have to save them too!"

"Priff... And Vinny?" Raya was confused.

"You'll get to meet them soon," Susumu said. "They're really cool."

"Can you lead us to them?" Martcha asked.

Raya gave a nod. "I sure can!" He confirmed. "I don't know how many more of us there are, but I wanna help save everyone too!" And with that, he rolled off, leaving the girls behind.

"He has so much energy, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, but not nearly as much as Neal does. Anyway, we better go get Priff and Vinny!"

And so the group pressed on, drawing ever closer to the Dark Lord's castle.