Mario and Luigi: Darkness In Light

Chapter 9: Freedom Or Control?

Mario yelled as he ran at Salem as he blasted dark fireballs at him, but he only clawed them away, but Luigi got behind him, and kicked him to the ground. He tried to punch him, but he vanished in darkness as his fit hit the ground. The duo both looked around, but Luigi gasped seeing him behind Mario.

"Mario! Behind you!" Luigi blasted a bolt of thunder at him as he jumped out if the way, and Salem winced as he felt it hit him.

"Thunder...another power light can contain." He said. But then his mouth formed into a smirk as he looked at Lucian, who was on his knees and had his left hand on his right arm. "You're making your vessel do the hard tasks for you now, Lucian? You putting others in front of harm's way instead of yourself isn't a surprising fact."

"..." Lucian looked away ashamed. However, Mario's hands clenched into fists.

"We're not doing this by force, Salem." Mario said as he looked at Luigi. "We're doing this by choice. It doesn't matter what happened in the past. At least Lucian realized what you both did didn't make things better."

"Lucian only took the cowardly way out, because he's too scared to face the future." Salem said. "What makes you think fighting for him will change anything?"

"...How do you know?" Everyone looked at Luigi who had a determined look on his face. "How exactly do you know what'll happen in the future? It didn't say you or Lucian could time travel to see the past or future. So, how do you know you'll win this?"

Mario smiled hearing this bravery come from his brother. Salem on the other hand only frowned.

"I don't need to know." He said and the duo looked at him. He then slowly floated off the ground as dark flames radiated from him. Mario clenched his fists as he stood his ground. Luigi, however, took a few steps back fearfully. Salem looked down at him and at Mario for a moment, before his hands clenched into fists as two dark auras formed around his hands as they got bigger.

Lucian's eyes widened as he pushed himself up using the tree behind him for support. Lucian looked down at his hands as he closed his eyes.

"Forgive me, Luigi.." He said as his whole body formed into a light orb as he floated in the air as it went straight towards him.

Meanwhile Salem combined the two dark auras...and he now changed his glance over to Mario. Mario still held his ground as his fists became shrouded in darkness.

"M-MARIO!" Luigi cried out to him, and Salem then yelled as he blasted the two at Mario, and he held his arms in front of himself to block it as the blast consumed everything around them.

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However, Mario didn't feel any pain at all. When he opened his eyes he gasped seeing that Luigi was in front of him that formed a shield in front of them with his arms out. The shield then disappeared as Luigi had a glare on his face. When Mario looked around he noticed that most of the trees around them were completely burnt and destroyed with dark flames.

"Luigi...?" Luigi looked back at Mario, but his eyes were now yellow instead of blue.

"Not quite." When he spoke...he sounded exactly like Lucian. But that was when Mario realized...