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Featured: Deep Castle

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Copyright © Nintendo

One of my favorite tunes from the game

Video Comment Quote: ' This was the soundtrack that was telling us, "The End is near..." '

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Ike brushes past me as I take one more look at the lifeless Papa lying on the debris covered ground behind me. I can feel how he is feeling without him showing me. It is killing him inside and we have no time to properly dispose of these negative emotions swirling around inside of us right now.

Little Lance is now sitting next to him on the ground as he gives me a sad look before I give him a nod, indicating we will be back soon. I take a glance to Myst before turning to follow Ike. Myst has averted her gaze from her father and has already started following her brother. So has Titania.

I feel little Merric next to me as he has stepped forward to take a look at Papa. I can see him hold back his emotions as he swiftly turns away with determination all over his face to follow his father, without giving me a glance at all. I turn to do the same, following in step with Boyd. His brothers are behind us, taking the rear with Ralf on the back of Oscar's horse.

We push forward as I keep my gaze straight ahead where the Daein Forces are hanging around. As we get closer to them, across the open field behind our hideout, they act as though they are luring us away from something. Lance told us this might be the decoy he remembers, so this makes sense, but I still feel like it is the only thing we have to do.

Papa...

I find myself becoming engulfed by my thoughts as they race through my mind.

That explosion...

It killed Papa...

A runaway tear slides down my face as I continue pushing forward, closing in on the group of Daein Forces who were responsible for taking him from me. My hands clench and unclench the more I think about it. I almost lost him a long time ago, but I had time to heal him. Now they force me away from him, giving me no time at all to save him again. I feel subtle anger rising from within me as we charge closer. With every step, I feel the anger build more and more. I feel my left hand reach down and tightly clutch Falchion's hilt. The next thing I notice, I have Falchion raised up next to me, shimmering with the anger that I now feel fiercely coursing through me.

I am one with Falchion. What I feel, it feels.

What it feels, I feel. And we will make our enemies feel our anger.

I feel myself ready to begin rushing through the ranks of the Daein Forces. I feel myself wanting to show them what I am now feeling. I feel myself wanting to charge through them one by one and slash my way directly to the King Walhart himself.

I feel my anger boiling hotter and hotter... wanting to lose control...

"Ma! Pa! Stop, look!"

The sound of Lance's voice jars me out of my thoughts and I turn around to face him, still with my eyes narrowed. His eyes widen slightly as he sees me, "Ma? Are you alright?"

He has called attention to me for some reason and I look down at myself when I notice the others are now looking at me worriedly as well.

"Wha—What?"

My magic. It was just encompassing me.

My eyes widen as I look back up at him. Anger. I was beginning to lose control to anger. And Lance just woke me from the nightmare, stopping the magic from taking me over. Falchion has powered down and looks calm now as my magic has done the same. When I break from the trance, I notice the sky behind us, where the Castle should be, is darker. Dark purple waves are wafting around.

"That is Dark Magic. The Sorcerer must be there! At the Castle! We have to go there right now! This is the decoy I remember!"

Ike studies the dark purple mist a moment, lost in thought, before nodding firmly. His eyes hardening as he narrows his gaze behind us, "The King. Greil Mercenaries, Go!"

As I watch everyone turn and follow Ike's orders, I hesitate for just a moment before following. Out of everything that has happened to me, I have not come that close to actually losing control from the negative emotion, anger. I guess that is what it is like when dark magic becomes overpowering and not able to properly release the negative emotion before it gets too bottled up. It prepares itself to be released, but out of your control instead.

It got that bad because I lost Papa. I have to compress my emotions right now, even though I absolutely do not want to. I guess I just was not ready for it. It happened so suddenly, I did not actually register it until now. All of the emotion flooded me at once and I was not ready.

I shake myself out of my thoughts and force them aside. I swiftly push myself up into the air and catch up to my mercenaries. Lance is watching behind him for me and looks relieved to see I am finally following. Little Merric looks the same as he floats next to him, also watching for me behind him. I pass over them and near the front with Ike and Titania as we travel past our hideout, heading towards Castle Ylisse.

As we clear the trees and enter the clearing with the Castle in view, the battlefield looks worse than I have ever seen it. Lance was right. Daein must have been hoping to distract us to get to the Castle without us on the field.

Vladimir. No... the Dark Lord is trying to take everyone dear to me and make me suffer since he was not able to curse me. He was referring to Merric and Lance all along who has disrupted his plans and forced him to change his strategy. Now the Dark Lord knows he has to fight me, when his plan before only consisted of me being ill and a much easier target.

I do not see Vladimir just yet, but the presence of the deep dark purple mist surrounding the castle tells me he is near. That tells me he has a spell casted on the battlefield and I do not know what it is. Chrom's Royal Guard, his other mercenary bands and Lycia's forces led by Prince Roy are surrounding the Castle walls, keeping the Daein Forces from entering. I enter the field with our mercenaries as we arrive outside the Castle, mixing within the red and blue armor of the Ylissean and Lycian forces.

All of us get attacked as the Daein Forces push themselves forwards, trying to enter the Castle. I allow my magic to flow freely, using this moment to release the negative energy coursing through me. I fight alongside Ike as we block the many swords, axes and lances being swung down on us from every direction. Ike tosses Ragnell up and he knocks back several fighters as I force them down with my powered up force shields. Lance is near me on my other side, doing the same with Boyd and little Merric using his force shields as well.

The large castle gate is behind us as we use all of us to block the path. The Daein Forces keep coming as they try everything they can to blow right through us. I push my emotion through my arms as I focus on the closest fighter, lift them up off of their feet and toss them behind their front lines, using the force from my negative emotion energy. I feel my anger calming down to a simmer with each one that I throw through the air. Ike glances at me sometimes, probably noticing I am flustered.

He must be emotional as well. I hope Myst is faring well. She is with Ralf, Oscar and Titania on their horses.

Cries of the fighters and soldiers around me are heard from all directions as I focus in front of me, trusting Ike and Lance are protecting the sides of the gate. I hear grunts leave Ike and Lance as they swing their Ragnells around me.

The battlefield feels as though it stops in time as the dark purple mist closes in around us, causing our vision to be altered. I shield and push the Daein forces back as I look up and see Sorcerer Vladimir enter the field. He scans the field, not yet noticing me and my mercenaries at the gate and narrows his gaze like he is frustrated, "Why have you not breached the Castle gates yet? The decoy has not yet fallen so they are still not yet—"

His voice cuts off as I see him stop and narrow his gaze on me. He looks more frustrated as he narrows his gaze even more, "You... Blast through that gate right now! That is an order!"

So he still thought we were still chasing his decoy. Surprise... we saw through your plan.

Vladimir summons several dark magic energy orbs and they swirl around him as he closes in. I have no more patience for you, my dear. You avoid my curse and now you avoid my decoy I planned exclusively for you. Now you will pay, directly from me, child.

The Demon Lord's voice throbs through my head, giving me a terrible headache as he raises his voice at me. He summons his dark energy balls to fly towards me and I easily dispel them away from me with a swipe of my hand.

"Child's play..." I whisper as I keep my gaze drilling into Vladimir's, "You're not the only who has had enough,"

Vladimir has shoved his way through his forces and is now close to me in the center of the battlefield, still slowly approaching me, closing the distance. Ike, Lance, little Merric and Boyd are close by but I do not know where the others are currently.

Vladimir cackles. Is that so?

I realize his voice in my head is also reverberating through the battlefield as I am no longer the only person who can hear it. Ike tells me he hears it with his grunt and adds softly, "That goes for all of us,"

"You have had your time. Now it is mine,"

You think you will be a match for Vladimir, child? He was such a peaceful man... such a waste of potential. But I came in to show him how strong he really is.

I grunt and narrow my gaze while lifting my left hand in front of me, encompassing it with my magic, "You should never belittle me. This is an error you have done in the past, Demon,"

Vladimir chuckles once again, causing irritation to erupt within me once again. Aww, are you upset that you lost your precious... Papa?

He chortles again like he observed I tensed up to his words, "That is not your concern!" I say sternly and without reluctance while narrowing my glare on his and tightening my grip on Falchion's hilt.

I push myself up from the ground, pull Falchion from his sheath and immediately appear before Vladimir, swinging my blade towards him. My movements are fluid, smooth and short. I swiftly command Falchion to block his dark energy floating towards me from multiple directions, only moving the shortest amount possible. Falchion moves so swift that I sometimes do not see him move, just within a second see where he once was and the next see where he now is, blocking the next attack. My surroundings fade away as the only thing I focus on is Vladimir. I do not even flinch as my now controlled anger is powering my speed and strength I now possess. I am lucky Lance pulled me out of the trance my uncontrolled anger had on me earlier. I feel myself completely encompassed with my dark energy as I stay focused on Vladimir while never breaking my glare from his.

Vladimir's eyes turn a deep red as he does the same, dropping his smirk and deepening his focus on my movements. He summons multiple more dark energy balls floating towards me in a snake-like pattern while forcing me away from him. I spin around while jumping away from him and throw shields around me as the energy balls reach me.

When I clear enough away, I throw my left hand forward while facing Vladimir, summon my own dark energy beam and push all of my emotion through my arm. The beam doubles in size and I send it flying towards Vladimir away from my hand. He teleports away forcing me to move my beam to follow him. I feel my energy fading so I have to end the beam before it reaches him again.

He raises his hands up before him and summons more energy balls and he fuses them together creating a larger one. He then summons several smaller ones and he flings them towards me at high speeds. I leap to the side swiftly while they zip past me. I envelop myself in a shield as I feel them all slam into me from behind. I grunt as I feel myself being pushed forward closer to Vladimir as my shield breaks. My stomach drops as I look up and see him sending the large energy ball directly at me.

I widen my eyes as I push myself away quickly, using the teleport spell and appearing close by. The large energy ball dissipates as Vladimir turns to me with an annoyed look. He raises his right hand at me and I feel like something is taking ahold of me. I see his dark magic envelop me as his hand becomes encompassed with it as well. His smirk appears on his face as he clenches his fist and I feel the dark energy tighten around me.

I close my eyes, force all of my emotion through me and I push against his spell with mine. I clench my fists as I feel my emotions erupting through me and the tightening sensation around me suddenly disappears. I fling open my eyes and see his spell has been broken as he pushes himself up into the air. I follow suit and shove myself up as my dark energy envelopes me completely. I calm my emotions and study Vladimir who hovers across from me, also with himself completely encompassed with dark energy.

His smirk increases for a moment before his dark energy begins to glow with a white ring around it. As it gets more intense, it starts to imitate white fire as it licks around him. I snap my eyes back up to his and narrow them.

Vladimir chuckles, Ohh, do you not know how to do this spell, child? Well that is too bad. Guess you really are no match for me.

"You? You mean the power you stole from Vladimir,"

He shrugs, In the end, it is all the same. Mine and not yours.

Vladimir raises his hands and he summons more dark energy. It erupts from his hands and envelopes him, spinning around him swiftly. I raise my hands and summon as much dark energy as I can while focusing my emotion around me. As soon as I feel like I am emotionally drained and all of my energy has been drawn, Vladimir races towards me with his eyes fixated on mine.

I feel like this is all I can do. It does not feel like enough. I hope this is not the end. I hope I have enough power to win. Vladimir is very powerful. Using Vladimir to come after me was the last thing I was expecting. I was just holding an act. If I show weakness, then the Demon Lord will win.

I close my eyes and do the same, charging forward towards him and brace myself for the impact that is about to happen. Every second I approach him, I tense up, focus all of my emotion forward and the next moment time feels like it stops.

I feel immense emotion enveloping me. Like my emotion is being enhanced.

It does not feel like it is all my energy anymore.

I open my eyes and everything rushes at me all at once. Blinding white light. Loud screeching sounds. Frantic screaming voices. Crackling sounds.

Pain.

Pain pulsating through my body.

I grunt as my voice finally responds and the white light fades away. I squint my eyes trying to focus as it gets so dark that it looks like the sun dissipated. Dark energy is flowing around me everywhere. My arms are extended out in front of me and I see all of my emotion flowing out from them.

Before I can focus and see anything else, I am forced backwards and I feel myself falling out of the sky. I feel so much pain flowing through me that my body goes numb before I feel a sensation like I have landed on the ground beneath me. When my eyes finally focus and the darkness is slowly being replaced with sunlight, I catch a glimpse of Vladimir falling near me out of the sky.

His body.

It is pulsating with dark lightning energy.

He lands on the ground with a thud and is motionless. I slowly sit myself up and lean on my right arm. Not even a second later, dark energy explodes out of his body and flies up into the air forming a large ball. The Demon Lord. I defeated him. Vladimir is safe. Ylisse is safe.

The war is over.

More crackling sounds explode through the air as the large dark energy ball explodes into a large snake-like beam and swiftly flies through the air downwards towards Vladimir. Then the snake-like thing changes direction right before it hits him and it flies directly at me.

My eyes widen and my breath catches in my throat right before pain pulses through me once again as the dark energy dissipates within me.

This was my demon. He took over Vladimir but he was chasing me.

Then thoughts are forced inside of my mind. Words that are not mine. I will always be lurking around nearby. You will never escape.

I gasp as I open my eyes and sit up forcefully with my left hand pressing against my chest. I feel as though I have just woken up from a nightmare as sweat slides down my body. The pain is gone and the ringing that was in my head is now gone.

Vladimir slowly raises his head up and looks around before his gaze falling on mine. He looks highly confused and looks like he has as much pain as I had prior, "Wh—Where am I?"

He looks around and the battlefield around us is littered with remains like a war was fought here just now. His eyes widen as he looks down at his hands that are still lingering with stray bolts of dark lightning energy, "No..."

I hear footsteps approaching me frantically, "Oh my God, Star!" and strong arms wrap themselves around me.

"I—" My voice comes out hoarse and weak. It forces me to cough, "I—Ike..."

I wrap my arms around him as he picks me up off of the ground. I do not have enough energy to do anything as I feel my body go flaccid. My eyes immediately close and sleep takes me over.

~~~

I stir and open my eyes, "Oh, she's awake, Vlad,"

Ike?

"Ah, wonderful!"

That voice.

I turn to my left and see Vladimir approaching me. I am laid out neatly in a bed in Ylisse Castle. Everyone is here. Everyone, including Vladimir. His peaceful self. He is smiling with his hands holding each other in front of him. He sweeps his eyes over me before finding my gaze once again.

"I am relieved to see you are awake, Star is it?"

I nod slowly, still feeling lightheaded and confused, "Vlad—imir?" I say softly.

He nods, "The Demon Lord was not after me after all. He was after you. Oh, and you are so young too,"

When I continue giving a confused look, he chuckles and continues, "You did it, Star. You defeated the demon that had control over me, tricked me into doing its dirty work and saved Ylisse. The war is done. My King has left and Daein has ended their hostility,"

My mouth opens marginally as I move my eyes and find Ike's next to me.

The war is over. It really is over.

The war is done! [The end is near.]

Thank you all for reading!