Well, this is it. One more update after this and it's done. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. And you might have noticed a slight change to the title to reflect the current status of this story.

Some loose ends need to be tied...but for the Smash Brotherhood, there are some problems even they haven't been able to foresee!

Epilogue – Ascending Towards Tomorrow

The class of boys ran along the indoor track of Volesdale High's gymnasium under the watchful eyes of their teacher, Mr. Niko. The PE teacher was always known for his choice words and camo shorts, which baffled many (including the faculty), but his demeanor repelled any questioning.

Today, Derwin was one of many under his scrutinizing gaze. The raccoon showed almost no signs of weakness while Niko was watching, but what he didn't realize was that he was already on thin ice – and it was starting to crack.

"Derwin, you're going to run one extra lap to make up for that class you skipped!" Niko suddenly barked.

"That was two weeks ago!" the raccoon whined.

Niko thought about it. "You're right. Two extra laps."

Derwin mumbled something under his breath but kept running. Freddy came up behind him with every intent of rubbing the punishment in, but something caught his eye through one of the open doors of the gym. Derwin became suspicious when the ribbing he expected from his friend never came.

Niko suddenly blew his whistle and pointed at a kid that was clearly having trouble keeping up a good pace. "Jake! You can run, you can even jog, but you better not walk this track."

Jake let out an audible moan.

Niko didn't let up, "When you grow up in a couple of years, how will you feel when your parents realize that instead of being a doctor, you turned out to be a maggot?"

Jake tugged his hair in frustration, "What does that have to do with running in circles?"

"Have you ever seen a maggot run track?" Niko questioned.

"Is that a trick question?"

With Niko now occupied with Jake, Freddy saw his chance and grabbed Derwin's arm, dragging him towards one of the doors leading out into the hallway.

"What are you doing?" the raccoon complained. "Do you want to get me into even more trouble?"

"Shhh! While he's distracted!"

Derwin's eyes lit up when they entered the hallway. Leaning against the wall was Link, dressed in his trademark green garb. Link chuckled; the contrast between his tunic and the white shirt and red gym shorts of his friends was not lost on him.

"Link!"

"Keep it down!" Freddy whispered harshly. "You don't want Mr. Niko to get wind of this, do you?"

"Hey guys," Link said with a simple wave. "What's new?"

"If you're here, does that mean you killed that demon dead?" Derwin inquired with the hope of some war stories to accompany the news.

Link nodded slowly. "Kneph is dead. Hyrule is safe."

"Well?" Freddy piped up excitedly. "You gotta tell us all about it!"

"I will, I will. But that's for later. What's happened since I was gone?"

"Mr. Niko is still a jerk!" Derwin announced sourly, folding his arms at the thought of running more laps.

"Preaching to the choir," Link said, recalling his own run-ins with their PE teacher.

"That guy's a freak," Derwin continued his mini-rant. "Why does he wear camo all the time? He's never been in the military."

"And who could he be hiding from in that getup?" Freddy added on. "The bleachers are white!"

Link smiled as his friends went on. As trivial an event as it was, he missed it, and it reminded him that he had two homes.

"My dad came home over the weekend with a burg cake," Derwin said, "Can you believe it? I'm still not sure if it was a peace offering or a trap."

Freddy looked at him as if he was suddenly seeing a complete stranger. "You didn't eat it?"

"Of course I ate it!" the raccoon admitted, rubbing his stomach regretfully. "My soul cried a little from the shamelessness afterwards."

Freddy bore a wicked grin. "Oh really? And all of this time I thought those tiny sobs were coming from your waistline."

Derwin grabbed Freddy into a headlock. "Say that again asshole; I didn't hear you the first time!"

Link laughed and pulled them apart, "You guys would kill each other without me. But...I was wondering...about my parents..."

"Oh!" Freddy exclaimed, snapping his fingers as if he had just remembered something. "We told them everything, but they didn't really believe us."

"But my dad managed to convince them, somehow," Derwin mentioned with a shrug. "Adults are full of it. They never listen to us, but get another adult to say it and suddenly it's a-ok."

"Thanks for telling them," Links said, and then sighed. "I know that I made them worry, and that's why I'm going to see them next and explain everything."

"So when are you changing back? The older look is cool, but I don't think Mr. Vaughn is going to let you into the classroom looking like that." Freddy eyeballed the Master Sword in its scabbard. "Scratch that. I want to see the expression on his face if you do that. You should definitely bring the sword too. Let's see him try to give you detention then!"

Link clammed up. He wasn't sure how to break it to them. "I...don't think that's going to be happening right away."

Derwin furrowed his brows. "If you miss any more days, Mr. Niko might redirect his hate from me to you. Next week he's going to start teaching us something called Muay Thai, so...who knows what the new punishment will be?"

Link couldn't make eye contact. "It's going to be longer than that..."

"You aren't coming back, are you?" Freddy murmured. His eyes burned with a mixture of anger and betrayal.

"No, no!" Link waved his hands frantically. They were getting the wrong idea. "I AM coming back...I don't know when. It's just that...the battle was won, but the war is far from over. Azazel is still out there and he's got a lot more spawn just like Kneph."

"So what!" Freddy retorted angrily. "You killed the demon. You said Hyrule is safe. The city is safe too! Why don't you just let Lucario handle the rest? He can take that stick out of his ass and beat the rest of the demons with it!"

"That wouldn't be fair to anyone," Link whispered. "I'm part of the Smash Brotherhood now. I swore to do everything in my power to protect everyone from the demons. Yeah, I said Hyrule was safe, but the reality is that as long as Azazel exists, we're all in perpetual danger. The Brotherhood is the one thing standing between the demons and the end of the universe as we know it!"

There was an awkward silence as the gravity of what Link said set in. Derwin started to fidget; he couldn't take it anymore.

"Link, I'm not mad at you...you're protecting everybody. How can I hate you for that? But, if everything Lucario said about reincarnation is true, the only reason we ever became friends is because you died in Hyrule fighting a demon, and started a new life here. So what happens if you die again?"

Link walked up to Derwin and put his hands on raccoon's shoulders. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I could die again and I'm not really sure what that means for my soul's future. This war...if anything's worth putting your life on the line, it's gotta be this, right? You need to know that I'm fighting for the future of everything. Me, you, our parents, this school, the whole city...you shouldn't see it as me keeling over for nothing. If I die, it's not in vain. You wouldn't lose your best friend for nothing."

"You better not die..." Freddy murmured.

Link grabbed Freddy and threw his arms around his friends' shoulders.

"Look guys, don't worry. I'll be here all day, so we can catch up when school is out. And I'll be able to visit regularly. This isn't the end of anything. Let's just say that the awkward years of high school just got a little bit more awkward. You're going to have to learn how to balance things out while I'm not here. But I am coming back, someway...somehow. That's a promise."

Derwin nodded and Freddy let out a defeated sigh.

"Now get back to class before you get in trouble," Link warned them playfully. He pushed Freddy and Derwin back into the gym, watching them fall in line with the rest of the boys running along the track. His eyes were fixated on the raccoon in particular.

His mind went back to what Lucario had told him earlier, just as they had touched down near the Lucent Gardens.

"I know you're going to see your friends."

"Why do you say it like that? Am I not supposed to?"

Lucario was quiet for a moment before he said, "keep a watchful eye on the raccoon boy."

"Why Derwin?"

"Because...he is like me."

It's funny, Link thought, you really can't tell just from looking, though it makes sense in a way...

A whistle pierced the air. "You think I didn't see you two maggots slink back in here? Five extra laps!"

Mardek, the brown-haired boy in green overalls, sat on a lone tree stump. He idly swung his legs as three gorons hauled building materials through the forest on a large wooden cart. One of the gorons waved to the child; he smiled and waved back, waiting for them to get a considerable distance away before sliding off of the stump.

"At last, the Age of Kneph has concluded," he proclaimed to no one in particular. "No longer will I have to watch that fool make mistake after mistake and ignore my advice. He has no one but himself to blame for the end of his run."

The boy started towards a nearby cave as his body begun to undergo a metamorphosis. The boy's skin darkened until it was completely black, and his clothes melted into his figure, resembling a walking, featureless shadow, save for his radiant red eyes. His limbs extended, growing to the height of an adult male by the time he entered the small cavern.

"It is time to raise the curtain on a new era of Hyrule," he said, his new and considerably deeper voice echoing. "And it would be unacceptable if anyone but me were to do it."

Mardek followed the snaking trail, lit by a few lonely torches. The cave's inhabitants, the rambunctious bats known as keese, did not dare move toward him. They shrank in his presence and folded their bulbous eyes under their wings as he continued his transformation before them. Every flicker of light revealed a new addition to his form: boots, gauntlets, and eventually a chainmail and hat.

Once he emerged from the other side of the cave, he resembled a human once again. "I guess I have Link to thank for that. He was the one person that bested Kneph, even in death. He will be rewarded eventually."

A small spring nestled near the mouth of the cave caught Mardek's interest. He stepped into the cool shade under the trees and leaned over the water, holding his face with a smile as he admired his own craftsmanship. The smiling reflection of Link peered back at him from the surface of the pool.

"I think it's time Hyrule got to know the dark side of its hero."

Roy leaned against the railing at the edge of the park. The waft of salt water calmed his burning spirits. Below him was a beach, its shores sparkling and awash in the orange light of the setting sun. The Sharya district of Centropolis was known as the marine zone, due to both its many canals and beaches. The quiet, natural tranquility easily made it Roy's favorite district, and he made it a point to visit whenever they had free time in the city.

The railing suddenly shook and squeaked from a sudden weight. Roy turned to find Lucario perched next to him.

"I've located the soul of another champion," Lucario said with little fanfare.

"So what's the holdup?" Roy asked.

"You know the process is delicate. Each one must be approached in its own way. But I think she is ready."

Roy grinned. "Another lady, huh? It's about time."

Lucario didn't respond and a silence fell between them. Roy watched as two zoras climbed out of the water and onto the sands of the beach, and briefly wondered if they could be so carefree if they knew of the war waged beyond the skies of the city.

"Things are going to get a lot harder from now on," Lucario said suddenly, the voice he projected low and solemn. "Kneph's death is a sign to the other demons that they've been underestimating us from the beginning."

Roy raised his brows. "You almost sound worried."

Lucario pointed at him accusingly and said, "The only thing that worries me is your clowning around."

Roy rolled his eyes, "Regardless of what I do or say sometimes, you know I'm in this one hundred percent."

Lucario silently agreed, though his face was pained with guilt as he wrestled with the idea of recruiting another member. He struggled to even contemplate telling Roy, but from the look he was receiving, he realized that left his poker face behind for once. He started to confess, and the flood gates had opened.

"To be honest, I am feeling a bit guilty at the prospect of pulling more people into this fight. The fact is that we're marked. Even if we disbanded the Smash Brotherhood right now and ceased all activity against the demons, Kneph's demise signified us as their mortal enemies. I don't know if I want to drag more people into our dark descent."

"Well, it's a choice right? You're not dragging anyone anywhere; it's always been a choice," Roy responded. "If whoever this new candidate is refuses, we just find the next one. The universe is a big place, there are going to be plenty of people in it who are going to want to defend it.

"And besides, if anyone dragged us into this, it's the demons. No one asked for this fight, but we're going to be the ones to finish it. We won't rest until Azazel and every one of his spawn are destroyed! Right?"

Lucario swallowed hard after hearing that. It was a tall order, and involved a higher cost than Roy could imagine, but he nodded in reply. He had made a vow long ago to destroy Azazel and all of the demons, regardless of where it took him in the end.

"You've really got to stop holding the weight of the universe on your shoulders," Roy told him with slap on the back. "We are a T-E-A-M! We're all walking the same road, heading for an uncertain tomorrow together."

"As a team, we still have a ways to go," Lucario admitted. "One day I may not be able to be your leader. We should prepare for the possibility."

"Don't talk like that. We took down a demon, our spirits should be up!"

"You yourself said that tomorrow holds uncertainties. Maybe it is time for us to face that."

"I hope that doesn't mean that you're training Ike to be your successor," Roy said, slightly agitated at the possibility. "Azazel can just devour me now if that's the case."

"No, that's not quite the plan..." Lucario mentioned cryptically, though he had to stifle a laugh.

Roy didn't quite like the subject and was determined to change it. "So about the new girl...who exactly is she?"

Lucario smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."

- End Volume I -

I hope you stick around for one more update, where I will dish the dirt on the upcoming Soul of a Smasher Vol. II (which I've already started writing), as well as elaborate on some things presented in this story that I didn't get to flesh out within the plot itself (such as the structure of Centropolis and its 8 districts).