When the Cowardly Lion Roars

...Before the Dawn

It was unclear as to how much time had passed, but to me, it was long enough. Gently, I eased myself off the wall, stood back up and picked up where I'd left off, softly singing along to the tunes on my iPod. However, my brief respite did me some good, for I found that I had more energy and could better keep my nerves when facing down ghosts. While I was—and still am—reluctant to reap these benefits, I at least had to acknowledge them.

My biggest priority now was finding a way into that Secret Altar, and it was likely that the door leading to it was locked, which meant that I needed to find some sort of key. And the only way to earn more keys was by capturing ghosts, so that was what I did.

First, I tangled with the Clockwork Soldiers, ghostly, life-sized wind-up toys that fired cork-tipped projectiles from their muskets with enough force to temporarily wind me. Slipping behind them, I vacuumed away their windup valves, which left them vulnerable to attack. Defeating them opened up a secret passageway to the roof, where I fought off more Shy Guy ghosts and earned another key. I also stumbled upon a sealed treasure room, and after collecting all of the riches, I scanned the mirror with the GBH, which took me back to the foyer.

The four Toads were huddled together, chatting quietly, and I paid them no mind. I couldn't; I had to keep going. In a sitting room, I fought some gold ghosts and ice-based ghosts, and then I met a ghostly girl named Sue Pea in an upside-down guestroom. I got her attention by dousing her with water, easily vacuumed the dolls she threw at me and captured her with some difficulty. When I left the room, there was a strange rumbling, and when I went to investigate, I found that the area had magically righted itself. I could collect more treasure, along with some more Boos.

By now, as I hummed along to my music, the ghosts still out and about were humming along with me. They'd never run out of ways to frazzle me, I guess. But there was no time to worry about that. With each ghost I defeated and each key I won, I sensed that I was closer to my goal. All I had to do was just hold on a few moments longer.

I cleared a plethora of grabbing ghosts from an armory and used my Ice Element to trip up a small, purple ghost named Jarvis, who retaliated by lobbing jars at me. Some of those jars connected, but I didn't really feel the pain until I wrestled Jarvis into the Poltergust. Not that it stopped me—I could tune out the throbbing as I continued unlocking and exploring more rooms. There was a pipe room, where a chest waited on the other side of a stream of water, and then there was a cold storage room, where ice was everywhere, and the ground was almost entirely made of ice. While slipping and sliding, I had to evade constantly falling icicles, and on top of that, a parka-wearing ghost named Sir Weston attacked me with ice sheets after I used my Fire Element to melt the sheet of ice encasing him. Igniting the logs around Sir Weston was the only way I could get an opening, and it took me around five minutes to capture him.

Dio, I couldn't get out of that cold storage room fast enough.

After pausing for a minute to regain some warmth, I captured some more Boos and grabbed more keys until I finally accessed an artist's studio. Paintings of ghosts decorated the area, and there was a ghostly artist comfortably seated at an easel, working on another such painting. My GBH identified him and Vincent Van Gore, an artist who "gave life" to his creations.

Wait—

That meant—

All of the ghosts I fought—

They came from Van Gore!

Van Gore was working for King Boo!

Without Van Gore to create more ghostly minions, I had a better chance of winning the day.