Author's Note
I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, like I said I would...so today, I plan on updating...let's see...howzabout I give you three more chapters? Ha, maybe. If not, two. I hope. Meh, we'll see. Ha, I'm not that reliable. But I'll try, lol.
Also, starting from this point on, I'm going to try and make all my chapters longer. I didn't realize they weren't as long as I thought until I looked them over again...I guess they just feel twice as long writing than them reading them. So...yeah.
Disclaimer
We all know I don't own Mario...thank Shigeru Miyamoto.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ascending Shadow
The cloaked figures stared in silence, waiting...the orb remained unearthly still upon the pedestal for a moment, a feeling of slight suspense washing over the room. No one stirred, no one seemed to dare to breathe, even...such was the magnitude of this moment.
The silence in presiding was abruptly cut off as the pedestal seemed to burst into flame.
No, not flames, it seemed...yet it resembled fire, seemed to burn like it, but was different. It seemed to be a flame composed of dark itself, as it burned a dark shade of deep purple. And it did not crackle, like most flames would, but rather hummed, low and ominously. The cloaked group still stared, no longer in silent suspense, but in silent awe of the flames.
The same cloaked figure whom had stepped up to place the orb in the pedestal moved towards the flame in slow, deliberate steps, cautious as he was before. He reached out to the otherworldly flame, but stepped back when it hummed deeper and seemed to grow. The room grew cold...this fire seemed to be the abstract of normal fire, as it deeply contrasted the fire we are used to in many elements, such as this...it seemed to lower the temperature around it instead of heating it.
A rumbling shook the ground for a moment, a deep vibration that seemed to reverberate from the core of the earth, sending chills up the collective gathering's spines.
And then, after a moment of utter silence, a dark, bone-chilling voice spoke. It's voice was disturbing, as it seemed to speak in a multitude of ancient languages, but still it spoke in understandable english, yet seemed to speak in more than one voice. It was hard to describe.
"And who among you has called to the Alta Core, the spiritual avatar of creation's despair?"
The cloaked figure that had made to touch the flame remained silent for a moment. He reached up and lowered his hood...indeed, he was human enough, or so it appeared as such.
He had long, rather rough black hair, and a young face...no more than early twenty's, one could guess. But his eyes set him off, for they were a dark crimson color, and seemed to shelter within them demonic energy.
"I, Ozarus, have, my Lord." He spoke in a voice that betrayed nothing of fear, if he was feeling any sort of fear. One would think that if a voice such as this seemed to speak to you from out of nowhere, and particularly in this setting, you might be a teensy bit afraid. But this man...or whatever...didn't seem to be.
The inhuman voice seemed to ponder something for a moment, evident by a "hmmm" that shook the ground slightly.
"And who are you to call to me, mortal?"
"One who seeks the power to end this life." He solemnly replied. The voice chuckled.
"Ahhh...and why is this your desire, human?" The unseen voice questioned.
"You realize this would mean YOUR end, as well..."
"I understand fully the consequences of harnessing your power, even to a small degree. To destroy everything...I seek to cleanse the universe, give it a chance at redemption. Through Armageddon may life be reborn, fresh, new." Ozarus answered, staring off into the dark space before him from whence the voice seemed to be coming from.
The voice remained silent again for a moment before speaking up.
"Yes...MY world." It seemed to be in thought.
"So...use my mortal shell as a vessel, mi'lord?" Ozarus began, pausing. "Of course, only until you have regained enough strength to carry on in your own form."
"I see you are knowledgeable...few of the fools alive today know of my continued existence, and even fewer still know of my restrictions in this state. And even smaller are those who know how to call to me, as you have...who are you, exactly?"
Ozarus smiled, very faintly. "I have told you my name, what more can I provide you with, great one?"
The voice chuckled. "I see...so you remain a mystery, yes? No matter. You have proven yourself worthy in my eyes, and we do indeed share opinions...all those ages ago when I was first imprisoned, I was nothing. No power...yet it grew, even under these restraints, even with my scattered existence. Though it's only a small portion of my former power, I have regained quite a bit. By mortal means, a substantial amount of strength. Yes, you will be my human avatar...we will travel in search of my remnants and, one glorious day, I will return to this world in all my glory. Yes...soon."
The cloaked figures behind Ozarus remained still as statues, listening with intense concentration. Ozarus nodded.
"Yes..." He was aware, however, that before he could be used as a proper vessel, they had to fulfill the requirements.
"I assume you are aware, though, that before I can possess you, we will need a few things..."
"Yes, Lord. The eye of creation comes first, I should think..."
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Bowser smirked viciously. Kammy simply stared in awe, and the rest of the squad decided to mimic them.
After making a new entrance to further explore the ruins, the team had entered into a room that didn't look like it belonged in any type of ruins whatsoever.
The room was what one would expect to find in a castle of royal standards, sparkling with gold on the ceiling, crimson carpeting, and...the rest of the room was littered with tons of ancient, evil-looking relics.
"We have hit the JACKPOT." Bowser said with an air of triumph, pacing around the room, taking it all in.
"I have NO CLUE what any of this is, but MAN, does it look good! KAMMY! Any world/plumber/princess-conquering tools here?!"
The old, female magikoopa shrugged. "I'm not sure, Lord Bowser, but I'll put my team on it right away."
Bowser grinned deviously. "Good, good...and no one to interfere this time, either! Ha ha ha...YES!"
At precisely that moment, a cloaked figure appeared in the room, and seemed as out of place as a fork in a spoon convention. He simply stared at the others. One thing that set them apart was that he was human.
"Who do you think you are, chump?!" Bowser snarled, though the cloaked man had simply brushed past Bowser mid sentence, leaving a rather confused/angry/flustered looking dark lord behind.
"HEY! I was talking to you!"
The man remained silent and seemingly oblivious to the others, walked up to one of the ancient relics, dusted it off, and held it in his hand for a moment, observing it.
"Bub, what are you doing?! These relics are mine, you hear?!"
The cloaked man turned around, finally paying a slight degree of attention to the fuming koopa lord. He smiled politely, as though, rather than just bursting in without introduction and taking a relic from an ancient room that didn't belong to him in front of others who wanted to do the same and had been subsequently asked who he was and what he was doing there in a rather angry manner , he had been asked about the weather politely.
"Lord Bowser, I presume?" The man chuckled, and this only made Bowser angrier.
"Something funny?" He asked in his most intimidating voice. The cloaked man responded to this by walking up to the large koopa and patting him on the arm.
"Well, see ya kiddos." He stood still for a moment before the open-mouthed bowser, smiled, and dissipated into thin air.
Awkward silence floated about in the air.
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Mario returned around midnight, grinning ear to ear. Luigi pretended to be asleep, though was watching his older brother with amusement out of the corner of his eye. He smiled. Mario hadn't stopped grinning since he got home.
Something must have happened...had something FINALLY happened between peach and his brother?
'Bout time... He thought, before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.
However, soon enough he found himself in a rather peculiar place...
Am I dreaming? He thought, looking down to find himself suspended in midair above a swirling, dark vortex that seemed to be sucking everything and anything except for him down into it's depths. He blinked. He had to be. But he could feel the chill in the air, feel the sense of light-headedness one experienced when released from gravity's pull, much more strongly than if he had been dreaming. And it just...felt real, a little too real.
Scenes from his life played before his eyes...he watched in confusion. This is what happened when you died, right? But he wasn't dying, dead, nor departed, was he?
"Hello, Luigi."
His heart jumped.
"Who..." He began, looking around. He turned around, and his heart lept yet again as he found himself staring at a cloaked man, his face shrouded beneath his hood.
"Don't be scared." The cloaked one spoke, and his words seemed to have a calming effect on Luigi. He nodded, rather absentmindedly.
"Listen...history is being shaped here. This is what this place is, not a dream, though it could be, yet not a part of our existence. I know you don't follow, but don't worry about it, okay?"
Luigi looked down at the swirling vortex and nodded.
"Good. Soon, you will have to make a choice...and I can't tell you the consequences of what you decide, but I can tell you this...part of something very large now rests on your shoulders. Metaphorically speaking, of course."
Luigi was confused, though he wasn't really in a mood to ask questions or argue, at the moment. So, he nodded.
"Alright...and keep an eye out." The cloaked man dissapeared, as well as the vortex, leaving only white.
In the center of the white, a dark orb spun, and a distorted light flooded out of the sphere, an inhuman laugh echoing...
Luigi awoke in cold sweat. Mario was snoring above him.
He remained in bed for a few minutes, panting, the sweat running down his brow. He didn't have the will to think, at the moment, so simply stared at whatever there was for him to stare at.
However, in this absent state of mind he was in, this type of daze...he kept hearing the cloaked man's voice.
He blinked.
Mario fell out of the top bunk bed and on to the floor with a loud THUMP.
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And that concludes this chapter! I tried to make it a bit longer...and the story seems to have been a little dull to me thus far, so I'm going to try and spice it up a little next chapter...somehow...
Anyways! Please review? I know people are reading this story because, if they weren't, I wouldn't have near 200 or so hits for it, so please? C'mon. Do it. No one's watching. :D