Now this was the moment everything had lead up to.

The group inside the castle had regrouped with the others in the Grand Unity Army, made sure that the battle outside was stable, and then a select group reentered the castle right into the front entrance... the Throne Room.

The eight Koopalings-- Iggy, Larry, Roy, Morton Jr., Bowser Jr., Wendy, Ludwig, and a newly-recovered Lemmy, went inside with their mother Bowsette, their stepmother Peach, and their great-grandmother Kammy hovering on a broomstick above. Peach’s Knights followed her in as well. But besides them, everyone else was still fighting outside. This was a family affair.

Peach was ready. She could feel Bowsette’s heat emanating from a foot away, she was burning so hot. And that was all she needed to keep going.

There sitting on the throne was the gargantuan beast of ash and bones, the undead Morton Koopa himself. She had seen him once before, back at the Crystal Palace, but in the heat of the moment she hadn’t been able to gauge just how massive he was. Even when Bowsette was in her Koopa form, she was still less than half the size of her biological father. That Axe that they had retrieved... it truly was made just for him, wasn’t it?

“I’ve been expecting you for so long, my dear daughter,” Morton said. “And you brought the whole family along. I’m so proud that you have finally been able to unite like this. Because you will all together be able to witness what I have discovered in my journey with the afterlife.”

“You’re never going to resurrect a Dread Lord,” Bowsette said. She pulled out her Chomp Shell weapon, which was glowing with a dark blackness.

“On the contrary,” he retorted. “You seem to presume much.”

“All I’m gonna presume is how we’re gonna kick your ass!”

Morton stood up, and his stature was even greater now that he was on his feet. He was a true monster. “I have no ass,” he said. “I am a pile of bones.”

“Koopalings, assemble!” Iggy shouted. All eight of them struck a pose together and then pulled out their Magikoopa wands. They summoned their Clown Cars and began flying around while shooting magic beams at Morton.

Many of them collided, but none had any effect. Magic spells didn’t work on those with no soul, no blood, it seemed.

Morton roared, shaking the throne room. In one corner, a statue of Bowsette as a Koopa cracked and fell to the ground. Peach raised her frying pan and then jumped forward, along with the rest of her Knights. Without her dress, she thought she would have lost the ability to float, but it appeared that it was not the clothes that made the woman-- it was the woman whose innate magical abilities had gone pretty much untapped her whole life because she was a pampered rich girl. Geez, she could have been a wizard, if only she were born poor.

She went right for the head of the beast, the unsightly skull that made up his awful face, and bashed it in as many times as she could...

It...

Didn’t seem to be doing anything. Even her gusts of wind made absolutely no effect on him. In fact, he was putting all his notice on Bowsette, and Bowsette alone. To get rid of Peach, he just swatted his arm, knocking her and most of her Knights to the ground.

One had managed to reach him and hack a sword right into him-- getting his weapon stuff in the bone, just in time for Morton to grab him and fling him out a window disappearing into the sky with a sparkling star.

Peach suddenly didn’t want to fight this guy anymore.

Bowsette, for what it was worth, was putting up a valiant effort. She attacked him with her Chomp Shell, launching it forward and reeling it in in rapid succession like it were some giant yo-yo. The attacks kept Morton from advancing forwards towards her and allowed the Koopalings to continue attacking, launching cannon balls and throwing small Mechakoopas on him.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

None of it was working, though. With one ill-timed Chomp throw, Morton finally caught the weapon, pulled it out of her hands, and then tossed it back at her, smashing her in the head and knocking her twenty feet backwards.

“Bowsette!” Peach shouted.

She ran after her wife but was struck backwards by a giant bony hand smacking her away.

It was funny. She didn’t even feel any pain as she flew into the air. It was almost peaceful seeing her vision stretch out around her like this... right until she hit the wall and the shockwave cracked the wall behind her.

A few months ago, that would have been the end of Peach Toadstool. She would hardly have been able to survive that kind of blow and end up in the hospital for the rest of her life. But... with her training in combat and magic... with her love... she wasn’t going down that easily. She leaned against her weapon and stumbled back onto her feet.

Peach growled, as fierce a roar as a mere human being could muster, and then held out both her hands to activate herself.

The earth shook beneath them, and the castle quaked. Even Morton was caught off-guard. And when Peach pulled down her hands with great force, collapsing the stone roof of the Throne Room upon him, he hadn’t even been able to figure out what was going on.

Morton was buried under the rubble. And that gave time for the others to recover, at least for---

ROOOOOOOAAAAAR.

He was too strong. He had gotten up without appearing to have any damage on him whatsoever. His dead, red eyes were now fixated on Peach herself.

“You know, I liked your father,” Morton said, approaching her with a toothy snarl. The Knights charge him again, but he swatted them away without changing his gaze. “I installed him over his brothers because he was willing to work with me and concede any territories I needed. I bet he felt really desperate once I was gone, facing a new, unpredictable ruler, not like the one who the Toadstools had allied with for ten generations. And I bet that’s how the Mushroom Kingdom was plunged into this endless conflict with Dark Land. Because your feckless father had no clue how to operate without my malevolent direction to steer him.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not my father,” Peach said. She chucked her frying pan at Morton and it dinged him on the forehead. No reaction.

“No, because your father would have known his place as the subservient to the dark ruler of the planet Earth. He wouldn’t have died in a fiery inferno from his opponent’s magical breath.”

With this, Morton opened his mouth wide, readying himself for a blast of flames that would incinerate Peach. She closed her eyes and held out her hands, as if she could stop against it with some sort of magic-- and then he stopped.

The ground shook again, but it wasn’t Peach.

Morton turned around and saw Bowsette holding out one of her hands, glowing with fire and anger at once.

“Get outta here,” Bowsette said.

And then out of the ground burst the Bone Dragon, Bowsette’s personal monstrous pet. Each of its three heads began attacking Morton, and had grabbed him away from Peach with their mouths. If he had had any meat on him, they surely would have made quick work of him.

Peach took this moment to get out of the action and limp to a place of safety. Those Knights that could still stand surrounded her and took guard over her. The Koopalings were mostly defeated by now, lying on the ground in various states of injury, but Iggy was still blasting the same useless magical wand attacks at his grandfather. It was all up to Bowsette and her monster now.

“Kakakakaka!” Bowsette laughed as she summon fireballs to her palms and chucked them in rapid succession. She now had the upper hand, and she wasn’t going to let--

Morton took hold of one of the Bone Dragon’s necks with his hands, squeezed it, and snapped it in half, chunks of calcium falling to the floor. The monster and its two remaining heads panicked, but it was only seconds before Morton swiped another head off with his claws.

With one piledriver to its body, the entire Bone Dragon was obliterated. He sent a beam of fire at Bowsette and knocked her to the ground as well.

“Kukukukuku,” Morton laughed. “Bowsette, my daughter... You don’t realize that you were never supposed to be here to win. From the very beginning, you were here to lose. Your destiny was to fall here.”

“I’m not listening to some dumb zombie,” she said as she tried to get back up again. He kicked her back down to prevent that.

“Now that you’re here, though... I can finally begin my ultimate plan,” he said. “I’ve been waiting years for this. Or, rather, my entire lifetime.”

“To bring back a Dread Lord from the dead just to end the world?”

“...What?”

“...Wha?”

“What are you talking about?” Morton asked. “I’m not bringing a Dread Lord back from the dead. I’m unlocking the Dread Lord inside of you.”