Prologue: The Shadow Yoshi
He looked at the book in his hand. The page was turned to a picture of a black star with red tentacles growing out of it. Above the picture, which took up two pages, was the underlined words: Armageddon Star. Next to the picture was a paragraph saying:
Years ago, King Namish was in desperate need of power to control the Koopa population. In a dream, he saw himself standing next to a gigantic golden Power Star. For two years, he searched for the Star. Eventually, he had another dream saying that he would find the Star in the Stone of Lost Dreams, a sacred shrine for the Koopa population at the time. So he went there, and sure enough, he found a Star like the one in his dreams.
For five decades, he ruled with, as he called it, the "Grand Star's" power. Then, one day, one of King Namish's advisers came into his room and found Namish lying on the ground motionless, with the Grand Star missing. In its place was a Star like the one in the picture. The Star then flew out of the castle and headed toward the Stone of Lost Dreams. Luckily, Namish's son, Prince Morton, summoned ten Magikoopas, and together, they managed to seal the corrupted Grand Star into the stone. From then on, the Star was known as the Armageddon Star, and the Koopas never went near the Stone of Lost Dreams again.
He closed the book.
The Armageddon Star, huh?
He smiled at the thought. Trace, controller of the Armageddon Star, the indestructible foe, the ruler of all worlds. That's what he would become when he found the Star. His name was Trace, He was something called a Shadow Yoshi. He was black, except for his eyes, which were yellow, and his claws, which were red. He put the book back on a shelf of rock; he lived in a volcano. He made his home inside the mountain of fire, on a ledge next to a pool of magma. He had cast a spell to make the volcano never erupt again. Now he considered the problem in his plan. He picked up the book, opened it to a page, and read aloud in his low, scratchy voice:
"Legend says that, in order to free the Armageddon Star, one must find the four Temple Keys in order to open the Stone of Lost Dreams. The keys are of the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. Each key is guarded by a demon corresponding to the key's element."
So his plan would be to destroy the guardian demons, get the Temple Keys, unleash the Armageddon Star, and takeover Plit.
Heh, he
thought to himself, no one can stop me now!
Chapter 1: Dark History
So, where shall I start? The book said that the earth demon, Grestle, was the weakest; I think I will tackle him first.
Silently, Trace laughed. The demon Grestle resided in the Mushroom Kingdom; where, the book knew not. This would be fun.
Mushroom Kingdom…
Trace had been there only once in his life, when he was a commander in Lord Bowser's army. That was a long time ago. The Koopa King had ordered him to take a squad of minions to invade the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnap the princess: Peach Toadstool. They had been stopped, however, by two mustached plumbers by the names of Mario and Luigi. He had underestimated them, and they had killed his partners and would have killed him as well, if he had not escaped just in the nick of time. Because of his failure, Bowser banished him from the Koopa Empire and, as further punishment, killed his family and all of his Shadow Yoshi kin.
When I obtain the Armageddon Star, I will destroy Bowser and those capped menaces. But first things first, I need to find Grestle.
The problem was, Trace had absolutely no idea where Grestle was, or what powers the demon possessed.
As much as I prefer to work alone, I suppose that I will need some help.
Trace shuddered at the thought. Still, he was not stubborn enough to lose sight of his goal.
Sighing, Trace pointed his thumb at his forehead and shouted "Atra Senti!"
This was one of the simplest spells he knew. Slowly but surely, Trace's features began to alter until he was no longer a Yoshi. Instead, standing exactly where Trace had been only a few seconds earlier, was a boy, no taller than five feet. He had medium long, brown hair. He looked as if he had just witnessed a hurricane. His eyes were almost double that of a normal human's, and he had no pupils. Still, unless you had the power to see through illusions, you would not be able to tell it was Trace.
After a few hours of travel he arrived at the border between the Mushroom Kingdom and the Land of the Koopas. There were guards at the border. They were not human, that much was obvious. They were each eight feet tall, and their bodies were completely covered with steel, spiky armor. Each of them had a different weapon. There were three of them. One of them had a mace, one had a huge sword, and one had a plant, which Trace took to be a Fire Flower (a plant that could produce fire at the user's command). The boy smiled.
It looks like there's going to be a fight. All right then, let's see what these guards can do.
Trace gripped
his sword and prepared for battle.
Chapter 2: Break-in
The guards spotted him more quickly than Trace had thought they would. Inside, he cursed his careless approach.
As Trace got closer, one of the guards stopped him and said "Stop, who goes there?"
Trace pondered what to say, even though he knew that a fight was inevitable.
"My name is Rolen, I come from Sarasaland. I bring a message from Princess Daisy and wish to give it to Princess Peach."
Trace's new voice was very raspy, and it sounded like he hadn't had much to eat in the past few weeks.
Now, the second guard spoke, in a voice exactly the same as the first's. "Very well then." Are they falling for it? "Where is the message?"
The boy pointed at his head. "Daisy entrusted right here."
"All right then, what is it?"
"Umm-"
"Oh, and by the way, don't think your little disguise fooled us for one minute."
Trace leapt backwards just as one of the guards swung his sword at him. Then, Trace pulled out a sword of his own and swung it at one of them. It bounced off the armor harmlessly. Then, the one with the Fire Flower shot a stream of flames at Trace. Trace just barely avoided being burned to death.
Hmm. If I can't penetrate their armor with my sword, then I'll have to use magic.
Trace started leaping backwards, until he was about one hundred yards away. Then he stuck out his palm and shouted "Sisthen Role!"
Four streaks of earth energy shot out of Trace's palm and directed themselves at the guard holding the Fire Flower. The blow never reached its target. The bolts disappeared when they went within a one-foot boundary of him. The guard laughed.
"Direct magical attacks don't work on us either. You're out of luck, Yoshi."
Not yet.
Then, at incredible speed, the guards ran at him and caught up with him in no time. All at once, a mace, a sword, and fire were all heading towards Trace.
Trace shouted "Atra Telepen!"
The guards weren't expecting such a high level spell from someone who wasn't a Magikoopa, but nevertheless, Trace teleported a few feet away from the fray. One by one, the guards’ attacks missed their target. Then, one by one, they each accidentally hit each other. The mace and the sword just rebounded off their targets, but the fire, to Trace's surprise and pleasure, actually burned off the first guard's armor.
What the…
Underneath, the eight-foot-tall guard was actually an eight-foot-tall skeleton. Trace had heard of these before. They were called Inferi. Inferi were either skeletons or corpses that were being controlled by a magic user.
A powerful one at that.
Trace smiled. Now that the armor was gone, the guard was no longer protected.
Trace shouted "Sisthen Ben!" and watched the Inferi burn.
Now there were two. Trace understood now.
Direct magical attacks don't work on them, but undirected ones will affect them.
"Sisthen Ben!"
This time, Trace aimed the blow at the ground right below the guards. The effect was immediate. The two skeletons charged at Trace, sending flames and a sword at him. Trace dodged the sword and the fire by leaping backwards. Then, he ran forwards and chopped both skeletons' heads off. Unfortunately, the Inferi showed no sign that they cared. Trace sighed. He hated using magic to win his fights, but it seemed that he had no choice.
"Sisthen Ben!"
In seconds, it was over.
That took longer than it should have.
Trace then turned, and walked past the border into the Mushroom Kingdom.