A diamond hidden within the gray line

Chapter 17: Bowser's reveal and max's bombshell.

-Bowser pov-

I had no time to waste as i hurried to my office upstairs, locked my door once i picked my iPhone up and dialed kamek's number. I'm at least glad that he recently got his hands on a red lively flip cell phone even though that thing is the oldest phone i have ever seen, but now that he has it, sending snailmail is no longer an annoying issue. I dial his number and impatiently wait for him to pick up. "Hello..? " Kamek answered.

"FINALLY YOU PICK UP!! Get over here. NOW!!" I yell. "What's with the frantic yelling?" Kamek asked. "MAX, THAT'S WHAT!!" I yell. "Ok, my king, just calm down for a moment...and tell me what happened!" Kamek tells me. Though i am far from calm, i at least humor his request. "The situation with the concealment spell was just made far worse...he..he has it..." I say to him, choking up a bit. The past at this point, had clearly caught up with me...leading to the worse possible memory of my father that has tormented me for years until i blocked it out of my memory for so long...and now that memory had forcefully returned!

"M-my lord? I've..never heard you sound like this in a long time...what does he have that has made it worse?" Kamek asked me, his voice was starting to sound shaky. "Dark fury...he has it..." I respond. "W-WHAT!! A-are you certain of this?!" He immediately says. "Ludwig, larry, morton, roy, and i saw it for ourselves, but he didn't attack us and begged for us to make it stop while his skin cracked. The rest have no idea." I explained, sniffling for what felt like the first time since that day.

My father...was a true tyrant. My mother? I never knew her since she wanted nothing to do with my father because of his ruthless and licentious ways. The mushroom kingdom all see me as a tyrant when they know nothing. Peach knows nothing. Mario and his scaredy-cat brother know nothing. Even my kids know nothing. Only kamek knew. As for my father...he was cruel even to me.

He wanted, no, he demanded that i follow in his footsteps and be as ruthless as he is, and there were times i wanted to run far away from that bastard, but the only person stopping me was kamek, who made me realize that it would make things worse. My father treated the koopa kingdom as if it were a pawn in his schemes. He wanted all the kingdoms for himself and killed anyone who stood in his way, including my younger cousin's parents who tried to overthrow him, and i heard that it supposedly triggered his dark fury form, but like max...he never attacked. He certainly wanted to from what i heard, and who could blame him? But he apparently couldn't for whatever reason.

That started a civil war that lasted for two years. I chose to stand against him secretly...at first. But i knew that it was either i faced him directly or be a coward. It eventually triggered his dark fury, and it terrified me because he attacked everything in his sight. So much destruction...so much death caused by him. His dark fury began at a recently foreclosed hotel that he turned into a makeshift fortress after everyone else turned on him. He quickly lost it the moment he realized that i had been standing against him since the beginning of the civil war, and raged while in dark fury when i said to his face, that i will never be like him.

He would've killed me had it not been for that heart attack...it traumatized me for a long time and i chose to block it out. As for kamek? He became more of a father to me even though i tend to ignore him.

And then, there's dark fury...it's a form that has been passed down from generation to generation and the first one to ever acquire it was my great great great great grandfather who got cursed with it after angering the inhabitants of some lake with..cats of all creatures. 'Fury be upon you, and the lineage of royalty. May all those before your very presence tremble, while a storm cometh forth in the midst of fury!' Is what was said to him, who laughed it off like it was nothing. None know what eventually caused him to go into dark fury, but it is known for certain that it caused his death.