Ignis ran through the hall of the school. The attack had come out of nowhere. The school was hidden. There was no possible way the heartless could have found them. Students and teachers were running around. The younger students were being shepherded to the inner sanctum of the school to protect them. Ignis and the group he was with ran for the courtyard. The heartless had bypassed all of the protections set around the school. Ignis was at the back of the group. Nox was in the front. Nox slammed into the main door which lead to the courtyard. He yelled as he summoned his keyblade and began to attack the heartless with ferocity that rivaled some of the teachers. Ignis stopped and took the battle in for all it was worth. Dozens of keyblade masters were fighting back the heartless, along with hundreds of students to back them up. Surprisingly not all of the masters were outside. Maybe they were in reserve if things got really bad. However, Ignis could see the through the wall that the heartless had made and he could see thousands of heartless coming. They were going to need everyone.
"Are you going to help?"
Ignis looked to see that Hikari had yelled at him. He jumped down, summoning his keyblade, Flashing Lightning, to help her with the heartless she had targeted. Hikari was Ignis' best friend ever since coming to this school. She was the only one that was not put off by his white hair. She gave him a hard time but always had his back if things went bad. Ignis dodged a slash from a shadow and destroyed it with a single swing.
Both ran to the next group to help other students. Ignis unleashed a thunder spell and destroyed the entire group.
"Nice" Hikari congratulated him.
"Thanks."
They had saved Titan and Leo. The four ran together to help their friends. Ignis unleashed thunder spell after thunder spell. They were his specialty and did not tire him out at all. Ignis was hopeful they were going to win until he noticed Hikari's face.
"Get DOWN!" Hikari grabbed Ignis' arm and dove for the ground.
Ignis looked back to see three Behemoths destroy the rest of the wall. Behemoths were some of the biggest heartless there were. They ran on four legs with two giant horns used for attacking. Their only weakness was a smaller third horn on top of their head. Only final year students and masters had a chance against them.
"Students focus on the small ones getting through. We will handle the Behemoths." Ignis saw The Head Master Yensid standing on top of one of the behemoths. Ignis looked under the Behemoths and saw hundreds of heartless swarming under the legs. These heartless were not just simple shadows, large bodies and even some invisibles permeated the grouping. Ignis grew nervous. They were winning but now with stronger heartless coming through and the students and masters were getting tired, he was not so sure of the outcome.
He swung, dodged, and cast spells for a few minutes until he heard Yensid begin to speak again.
"Everyone we will retreat into the main hall. There they will be bottlenecked and easier to pick off. Those proficient at healing should go to the hospital and await the wounded to arrive. Move NOW!"
Ignis ran for the main hall. Hikari and Titan stood with him, but Leo ran for the hospital. Leo was one of the best students at healing. Ignis knew he would do anything to save the lives of students and teachers. Yensid closed the door and sealed it with magic before turning to the keybladers and discussing their dire situation.
"The heartless caught us with our gaze down. There was no warning of this attack. The magic I have sealed the door with will not hold for very long and the heartless are attacking other parts of the school. Now you will be assigned where to go to defend; red for the game field and green for the watchtower. Whichever color your gem changes is where you go. If it is Black then that means you are staying here. Ignis' gem on his shoulder armor glowed green while the gem on Hikari's gauntlet glowed black, and Titan's was red. "Also, " Yensid continued his speech, " those capable of using armor are allowed to."
Ignis looked down as both Hikari and Titan hit their gems to activate armor mode along with most of the other students. He had not passed the test required to achieve armor mode. The armor was supposed to increase ones abilities and allow travel between worlds. Ignis looked to see Hikari decked out in her red and blue armor while titan was gold and silver.
"Be careful friends." Titan placed a hand on Ignis' shoulder before running off to the game area. Ignis looked at Hikari.
"See ya when this is all over?" Hikari gave Ignis a hug.
"Definitely. Now go save the world."
Ignis turn and ran for the watchtower. Saving the world was what Ignis wanted to do. Some keybladers were content to only study the powers of the keyblades, while others only watched what happened on the worlds but Ignis wanted to actually travel to other worlds and save them.
It took a while but the fifty or so students chosen for the watchtower finally reached their destination. Ignis looked to see Master Merlin casting spells repeatedly at flying heartless. Ignis and the other students joined the fray. Merlin instructed the students about their mission.
"Your main objective is to try and keep them from landing. If we fail then the heartless will have a direct link into the middle of the school and they will be unstoppable."
As it happened Ignis ended up right next to Merlin.
"Dear lord boy. Where is your armor?"
Ignis looked around and saw he was the only one without armor. "Um… I haven't passed the test yet sir."
"Well alright then. Keep your wits about you."
Ignis nodded and went back to slaying the heartless. More and more kept coming. Razorwings permeated the sky. Ignis launched a fire ball at one of the bigger heartless to see it explode, followed by a lightning spell to destroy a group of razorwings. They were holding their own and Ignis was about to cast another spell until Merlin stopped him.
"We must retreat."
"What why?" Ignis was confused. He looked around and not even a single heartless had gotten through yet.
"We have lost the main hall. Yensid is calling for a full retreat to the outer worlds."
"I don't have armor. I won't survive the trip. And what do you mean lost? How is that possible?" Ignis thought of Hikari as he spoke.
"To many heartless got through." Merlin stood up and spoke to everyone present, "Students we are in full retreat. Everyone will go to the basement to the teleport room. I will stay to ensure you make it. Go now!"
Students ran down the stairs as fast as possible. Ignis was in the middle but was able to force himself down a side hallway. He wanted to find Hikari if he could. He ran for a while until he came upon a Neoshadow. It was as tall as Ignis and three times stronger than a regular shadow. Ignis block its first attack but felt its claws cut his skin with another. Blodd trickled out of the cut but Ignis ignored the pain. He unleashed magnera followed with a fireball. The neoshadow disappeared and Ignis continued on his way. He rounded the corner and saw the main hall. Bodies of keybladers lay across the floor. There were no heartless of course. But that was wrong. Ignis looked around. There should be hundreds of heartless coming through the door yet even though the door was wide open the heartless stayed outside. Ignis walked through the hall until he spotted someone sitting on a table.
"Nox, what happened?"
"Hmm?" Nox turned around. "Oh yeah the heartless got through but Yensid cast one more barrier to let everyone escape."
Ignis turned to look at the placid heartless "But why aren't they trying to break in?"
"Heck if I know."
Ignis turned back to face Nox. "Do you know if Hikari made it out?"
Nox shook his head. "Sorry Ignis I didn't see."
Something did not feel right. "Nox why are you still here?"
"What? Oh uh I stayed behind to make sure they escaped?"
Ignis shook his head. "That's not how Yensid works. He would never agree to that."
"Then why are you here Ignis." Nox looked sternly at Ignis.
"Because I wanted to find Hikari."
"You better go to the teleport room." Nox waved Ignis away but Ignis held his spot.
"No I am going to check and make sure she isn't here."
"Oh come on he isn't going to leave. Let me just kill him like I did the others."
Ignis looked around to see who spoke.
"Up here idiot."
Ignis looked up to see a heartless sitting on a banister. It was unlike any heartless he had ever seen or studied. It had glowing red X's where it's eyes should have been. It had a giant toothy smile. It was wearing tattered clothing.
"Fine." Nox spoke in a bored voice.
Ignis looked at Nox then back up at the heartless as it jumped down from the banister and summoned a gigantic Scythe.