Chapter 17 Darkness Closing In

Right by Aria's side, the Koopa King stood and gawked at the purple smog. His advisor lay forgotten on the ground as the stuff grew thicker and darker. A chill spread through the room, cold enough to make frost form along the walls and on the armrests of the throne. Aria's heart pumped like mad, the beat almost strong enough to make her pass out. She didn't have a doubt in her mind that Bowser was experiencing the exact same kinds of problems.

Despite his shock, Bowser stood up to his full height, staring down the darkness with a glare. He very clearly wanted to run away in terror but still stood his ground. "What is the meaning of this?" His voice, despite how strong and mighty it sounded on a first glance, shook and trembled. This was enough to make Aria's body do the exact same thing. The shaking only grew stronger when a high-pitched laugh came from the smog. It sounded like multiple different voices had been layered on top of each other, and it froze Aria in place.

Now Bowser trembled too. "Who… who are you?"

The smog shifted. It molded itself like clay, forming a shape. Aria felt sick to her stomach watching it. She almost collapsed to the floor as she held onto her abdomen, because this… oh boy, this was way worse than she thought…

Within record time, the smog had formed the shape it wanted to take. A face, sticking out from the smog while simultaneously being constructed from it, stared down the Koopa King. Its teeth looked like the sharpest swords in the world, and they poked out from a mouth that contorted into the ugliest grin ever known to any mortal. The eyes glowed red, searing themselves straight into Aria's vision. Even when she closed her eyes, she could still see their wicked glow. Hands also came out of the smog, with long, gnarled fingers and fingernails sharp enough to compete with the teeth.

Even as someone who had encountered numerous demons before, Aria still feared that she was going to die.

The smog… no, the demon laughed. "Look at you. The mighty King Bowser, the most 'fearsome' Koopa King, trembling in his boots."

Bowser still shook. "I… I ain't trembling!" He slapped himself across the face as if that was the proper way to get his body to cooperate with him. "You're… you're gonna be trembling in a minute!"

The Shadow Seeker chortled, shaking its head. "How adorable. Do you think you stand even a sliver of a chance against me? You're absolutely pitiful."

Bowser gasped. His eyes grew wide, and he pointed a shaking finger at the demon. "You take that back!"

"Absolutely not." The demon laughed again, sending sub-zero shivers up and down Aria's arms and spine. "Not in a million years."

Steam shot out of Bowser's nostrils, with all previous symptoms of fear completely vanishing. "Oh, you're gonna regret saying that!" He glared at the Shadow Seeker, squinting his eyes at him as if he was locking on a target. "No one, no matter how demonic, shows up and insults me straight to my face!"

With that, Bowser charged, yelling and holding his fist up high. Aria watched this display, feeling as though she couldn't move. With Bowser heading toward what would no doubt be a painful, miserable death… she wanted to call out to him. She wanted to tell him to stop, to turn back and run while he still had the ability and the chance. It was these desires that made her curse so much more insidious to her, so much worse than it had already proven itself to be.

As such, all she could do was watch Bowser as he charged. He punched at the demonic cloud, but just like actual smog, his fist didn't come in contact with any sort of solid surface. The King backed up, gawking as the Shadow Seeker continued laughing in the most bone-chilling way. Fire formed in his mouth, and he shot it right at the Shadow Seeker. Like his fist, it didn't make contact, instead shooting uselessly toward the wall behind the demon. It took a minute for Bowser to realize this, and when he did, he stopped and hyperventilated. He stared at the Shadow Seeker, who grinned at him like how a serial killer grins at their newest victim.

"You… you…" Bowser couldn't talk, could only put his hand to his chest as his hyperventilation got even worse. Seeing that made Aria's fear escalate. If Bowser, the King who could go toe to toe with any monster, the king who still faced down Mario without a drop of fear or hesitance, was this scared about the Shadow Seeker, then they were doomed. Sure, Aria had already known intellectually that this wasn't going to bode well for any of them, but now, her emotions had finally caught up with her brain. She felt like crying, running away in order to preserve any chance at life she still had.

Of course, she wasn't going to. Not only was it that she couldn't do it, but she also shouldn't do it. Even as nothing more than an invisible vapor, there was still something she could do to help. Realizing this, she ran over to Kamek. She put her hand to his heart, breathing a sigh of relief. She hoisted him up, holding him in her arms. Her mind raced, trying to decide where to go. The Shadow Seeker blocked the main exit; maybe she should run to the other side of the room and test her luck there…

Unfortunately, right as she was in the process of deciding, a guttural purr came from the Shadow Seeker. It floated closer to Bowser, with the smoky tendrils practically wrapping around his body. Bowser whimpered. It looked like he wanted to run away, but his fight-or-flight instinct just wasn't kicking in. Aria's heart pounded in every part of her head as the Shadow Seeker smiled at the Koopa King.

"I think it's time that you learn your place, my dear little King."

It opened its mouth. For a split second, Aria worried that it was going to bite the King's head off, and it made her scream out loud. The Shadow Seeker didn't do that, thankfully, but what it actually decided to do still wasn't any better. With its mouth wide open, it pulled what looked like a light stream straight from Bowser. The great Koopa King made no sounds as the demon did this; he just stood frozen in place. To Aria's terror, she saw the color draining from Bowser's form. Literally; his body was turning gray the more of the life force the Shadow Seeker sucked out of him. Eventually, Bowser's entire body was drenched in the monochrome color scheme. Aria gasped as he wobbled and collapsed to the ground. His eyes were open, but the glassy sheen of death glazed their surface.

"BOWSER!" Aria screamed.

The Shadow Seeker once again laughed that horrible laugh. "He really was pitiful." To Aria's shock, he made direct eye contact with her. "Now, to deal with you, Aria Shellcreep."

Aria's eyes grew so wide that they threatened to pop out. Acting more on instinct than anything else, she bolted toward the exit. Her breathing grew labored almost immediately, but she didn't stop running. She didn't look back either, not for a second. Even still, she knew that the Shadow Seeker was following her. She could feel its presence, with the icy, hemorrhaging chill consistently resting on her back. Even when she picked up the pace, it refused to die out, refused to warm up or go away.

Tears formed in her eyes. She looked down at Kamek, still weak and unconscious. Every once in a while, a groan escaped from his mouth. Maybe it was due to desperation more than anything else, but Aria decided that her best shot at survival was waking the old wizard up. So, when she got to the courtyard, she laid him down in the grass and shook him.

"Come on, Kamek!" She shook him at a speed that was probably too hard, but she didn't care. He was her only hope. He was the only way that any of them could potentially walk away from this situation alive. Maybe, if he did manage to wake up, the two of them could perform the ritual that would kill the Shadow Seeker. Sure, that plan was a bit of a long shot, but…

Aria gasped, feeling a freezing sensation. Something wrapped around her neck, choking her and squeezing any air out. It lifted her into the air, leaving her to kick and struggle. She almost had a heart attack when she was forcefully turned around, forced to look right into the face of the Shadow Seeker. Tears streamed down her face. If she wasn't being choked to death, she would've screamed.

The Shadow Seeker, surprisingly, didn't laugh. Instead, it ran its finger down the length of Aria's face, with the sharpness of the tip almost causing a scar to form. Another guttural purr came out of its throat, a sound that pointed to the sickest pleasure ever felt by any being. Aria whimpered. She struggled against the demon's hold around her neck, feeling her life slipping away before her very eyes.

"You have got to understand that you can't interfere with me or my plans in this way, little girl." The Shadow Seeker's face changed, showing even more of its sickest pleasure. "One might think it's noble that you have gone out of your way to try and stop me in this way, but it's really one of the most foolish things a Demon Hunter such as yourself could do." He giggled. "There's no way that you could defeat me, given the circumstances. No one will even bother to help you in the state that you're in." His eyes seemed to dance, and he even licked his lips as the life force continued to slip away from Aria. "Don't you understand that, little girl? Don't you know that despair is the only sensible emotion to feel at this point? Don't you realize that nothing you can do will even put a dent in my plans?"

Aria tried to keep her eyes open, but it was becoming impossible. She felt incredibly light-headed. Darkness was starting to close in…

And then, all at once, she fell. The squeezing sensation around her neck faded away the second she came in contact with the ground. She coughed, taking in the air that the Shadow Seeker had afforded her. She had no idea why it had allowed her room to breathe, but she was certainly thankful.

At least, until the demon spoke to her once again. "I have considered killing you, little one. I have. But ultimately, I have concluded that it won't bring me any pleasure." He leaned down closer to her. Aria heard no breath entering or exiting him, and the absence made her shake. "After all, why should I kill a mere vapor? Why should I trample a germ when it is bound to disappear of its own accord soon enough?" It laughed again, but this time, the sound drew hatred out of Aria. "It's almost foolish on my part. Pointless, I guess you could say."

Aria glared at him. Her body filled with the strongest hatred she had ever felt. She wanted to rip this Shadow Seeker to shreds, pull it off of its high horse, and trample it as it lay helplessly in the dirt.

"You aren't going to get away with this," Aria said. She weakly lifted herself to her feet, forcing herself to stare into the demon's wicked eyes. "We koopas are much tougher than you think, especially if we're Demon Hunters." She squinted at it, feeling the desire to watch it burn. "You might think you've obtained victory now. But I promise you that you haven't. I will find a way to stop you."

The demon snickered. "You really are that delusional, aren't you?" It chuckled while shaking its head. "Well, I don't think killing you would give me pleasure. However, I think making you suffer would fill that void." It raised its hand. "How does freezing to death sound to you, little girl?"

With that, it snapped its fingers. The second it did, a falling sensation overcame Aria. She screamed, plummeting into a dark void with no light in sight. Just as she was worrying that she would fall for the rest of time, she landed on something cold and went. Lifting herself up, she saw that it was… snow?

Shivering, Aria lifted herself up. She saw snow as far as the eye could see, with little flakes falling out of the night sky. This sight, along with the aurora borealis shining along with the moon, told Aria that she was in Frosted Glacier.

Grunting, Aria rose to her feet. "Damn it," she uttered, forgetting about how much she despised swearing. She let out a breath, which turned into a vapor upon making contact with the freezing air. "That demon needs to be stopped." She put her hand to her chin, trying to think as her body continued to shiver. "But how do I do that?" She considered this for a while, almost completely forgetting about the sub-freezing temperatures her body was being subjected to. After a little bit of thinking, she remembered how Bowser had said that the Koopalings were in the Mushroom Kingdom, being protected by the Mario brothers while trapped in human forms.

Aria let out a breath. "I need to get to the Koopalings." She began walking, leaving footprints in the snow. After she had taken a few steps, she shuddered. "Oh, hopefully they will be able to help me…"