The Legend of Mushrooms

Part VI: The Calling Bell

Red lowered his weapon of choice, the sparkling noises that flickered from his wand sounded like something directly out of My Little Pony, he was a brave, strong wife. Zeeh finally got the chance to speak after Red's abrupt entry into the castle,
"What appears to be the problem with you Man! Crashing into the castle like a meteor!" Zeeh squealed in a tempered voice. Red didn't budge one bit further and neither did his lips to respond to Zeeh's criticism on his enterance, Peach continued off what Zeeh said however,
"Red? Is that you? And what is that wa-"
"It's nothing. It isn't mine, it's special." Red cut off Peach, clearly showing signs of defensiveness and secrecy when it comes to his wand.
"So I'm assuming you know what the issue is considering your visual anger at this moment." Zeeh spoke, slowly walking toward him.
"My beautiful, loving husband has been taken from me. Why shouldn't I be angry?!" Red said with outrage as he pushed past the two women and marched toward the kitchen area. As he marched, each soldier that stood within the castle to attention got the dirtiest of looks. Red wasn't a people person when he wasn't with his other half. As red placed his weapon down in the kitchen, he stole a bread roll from one of the counter tops. He began chewing on it quite aggressively, then, heard a whimper from the corner of the room. It was Kipper, looking down at the floor in distraught.
               "What's wrong with Kipper?!" Shouted through Red to Peach and Zeeh. Zeeh jogged over realising Kipper had been alone for a while, she entered the kitchen and launched herself into the corner to console her good boy.
               "Missing his Father I presume. The poor boy is worried H can't deal with Hybrid and all of this mess." Zeeh spoke assuming Red knew what had happened with Toad.
               "Are you saying Hybrid of all people, has MY LOVE?!" Red screeched in embarrassment. He knew he could destroy Hybrid in a heartbeat. Peach then entered the kitchen slowly after, confused as to where Red had been, how did he not realise Hybrid was behind Toad's kidnapping?
               "So, you had no idea Red that Toad has been taken by Hybrid?" Peach spoke in quite a light voice knowing how tense the situation was at the moment.
               "I had absolutely no idea. I was under the presumption that he dad gotten into a fight with somebody over merging Chaos and SHROOMSUK?" Pleaded Red in a much more calmer voice. It seemed Peach's blossom tones gave the environment a calming blanket. Zeeh spoke up explaining further,
               "No not at all. Everything happened so suddenly, we received a scroll which is in the palace room in the castle. It spoke about Toad's kidnapping and where it was. H, Dazz, Sanpher, Bowser and many others are over at Toad's dormitory now, where he supposedly is being kept." Red jumped in straight after Zeeh had finished:
               "Then what are we waiting f-"

The castle walled echoed with the dullest tones of a mocking bell. It sounded distorted, as if it wasn't actually coming from anywhere. It shook the walls and the soldiers inside of it as they began collapsing one by one. The bell's chimes were deafening to the ears, Kipper growled into the air with mixed whimpers as he folded over his ears and cowered behind Zeeh. Red was slowly pulling himself toward the counter where he left his wand, but as he reached it, the counter top shimmered to the vibrations of the bell and knocked the wand off. With the speed everybody was moving due to the bell, there was no point trying to do anything that way,
               "W-w-hat d-do w-w-we do-o" Peach struggled to even get a few words out to the others who kept looking at each other for conviction on whether they knew what was happening. Zeeh then, as hastily as possible, reached for her artifact, her veins clenching as he struggled to move her arm even a couple of inches, the bell's song consuming every single thing within the castle. Once she clutched the bottom of her weapon, a white and gold crusted harp, she strung the lowest string and spoke,
               "ENOUGH!" She shouted whilst plucking the bottom string of her harp artifact once. A ray of pink and purple energy seemed to disperse from her artifact, making a beautiful sound that seemed to be C sharp, a drone like noise. The bell tones seemed to slowly shallow out as the energy extended its leave from the harp, spreading across the castle. As the sounds slowly silenced themselves, everybody fell to the floor in exhaustion, even being able to remain stood was impressive with the energy the bell sound seemed to take out on everybody. Red spoke first after falling to his knees,
               "What the hell was that, where did it even come from?"
               "Let's just say I don't think we're alone right now" Peach said,
               "We're definitely not, I'd suggest everybody prepares themselves." Zeeh concluded.

As the castle fell silent, a cackle slowly started to reveal itself and every bodies ears perked. They made the right call to prepare themselves as the castle seemed to have an unwelcome visitor. The soldiers in the hall quickly gathered themselves and formed a circular battalion prepared for the arrival of something, powerful.
               "What are you doing here, What are you doing in my fu***** castle!" Peach exclaimed through into the main hall, walking by her soldiers. Everybody else followed giving shocked looks, never hearing such a manner from Peach before. Clearly she was prepared for something.

"2 O CLOCK."

The bell would chime again, the soldiers fell to the floor instantly this time. The others however stood baring the crucifying sound. They had no idea where the voice came from, but had other issues at hand. Zeeh and Red slowly appeared in the hall from the castle kitchen, their mushroom shields activated to try and avoid the damage from the bell they were taking, Peach did the same still pushing her left leg back to avoid collapsing from the sheer power.
               "Where is thi-i-s coming from? We need to fin-n-d the source, the person behind-d this" Said Zeeh approaching Peach from the left, arms up around her face as if avoiding a storm on top of a mountain. Red on the other hand looked upwards, holding now a rosewood plated war hammer, a gift from his love.
               "We could try th-e. Chambers upstair-r-s." Red suggested just behind the other two, gripping his weapon with might. As the silence fell between them all, Zeeh now strung two of her strings, making a much louder call from her harp, waves of energy dispersed like last time, much greater. The sound eventually calmed once again.
               "Now's our chance. Let's get to the chambers and search for this source!" Zeeh announced rushing through the collapsed soldiers toward the stairs, Peach behind her did the same, looking left and right making sure the soldiers were okay. Some were silently looking around, grunting from some injuries they've taken, but in co-operation, each mushroom soldier held each other, prepared for the next wave of calling bells. Red then followed the other, leaping toward the stairs using his 'Spirit Necklace', a relic that granted him an increased movement.

"HM. 4 O CLOCK!"

Another round of bells hit the castle like an earthquake. The railing of the stairs came clean off like a bandage, the others activated their shields again, some activated their defensive skills to take the power of these bells, they seemed to have doubled. Nobody could speak, they all just slowly climbed the stairs, grunting and murmuring in slight pain as it took every single inch of energy out of them to make it toward the chambers. As they slowly peered round the corner to see the grand doors that would hold the bedroom chambers, the stairs collapsed, like dominoes they gave up and fell to the ground, rubble covered some soldiers. Zeeh, Red and Peach landed on their feet, using their artifacts to aid in their fall as they crushed into the ground. The bells then ended yet again.
               "Christ. The Soldiers!" Red squealed slightly realised what he had just fell on. Suddenly however, in no time at all, Peach whipped out her artifact like a gymnasts ribbon and pointed it toward the rubble that covered her loyal soldiers,
               "EVAPORATE!" Peach commanded. Her artifact shone a blossom pink and the rubble disinterested into dust right before every bodies eyes, I suppose that's the power of the princess. The soldiers slowly reached themselves to their feet, slightly injured but signalling to the others that they are okay.
               "Quickly! We must leap up to the chambers, I swear I saw a hint of a person up there" Zeeh spoke as she prepared herself. It was too late.

"12 O CLOCK! HAHAHAHA!"

Nothing happened. Like a practical joke gone wrong, the bells were silenced. All you heard from the chambers was the growling and barking of Kipper as he chewed on the cape of a figure, what a good boy. Kipper pulled them out by the broken stairs so everybody could see who it was behind the calling bell.

[...]