Notes: Okay, this is the second out of the three chapters I rewrote
Notes: Okay, this is the second out of the three chapters I rewrote. I hope you guys like it! R&R please!
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As soon as Sora, Kairi, and Riku all charged at Nihlus simultaneously, tow large bodies teleported into the room. They both smacked their bellies like they always did before they charged and then flanked Nihlus as he ran toward the three keyblade masters. Riku and Nihlus leaped at each other, their weapons clashing in mid-air. Meanwhile Sora and Kairi were prevented from immediately aiding Riku as the two large body heartless blocked their way. The two heartless "belly bumped" Sora and Kairi, knocking them both back to the base of the staircase, but not actually doing any damage to either of them. A squad of lance soldiers teleported in, apparently to help their comrades in preventing Sora and Kairi from helping Riku. "Be careful, Riku!" Kairi called out to her silver haired friend as she took a battle stance next to Sora. Although the two of them would be able to take out the heartless with relative ease, there was no telling how many more heartless might teleport in.
Besides, these heartless seemed to more organized, somehow. The lance soldiers weren't struggling with their own weapons in order to get them to fight. Riku only grunted in response to Kairi's warning as he struggled with Nihlus in their deadlock. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sora and Kairi charging the heartless. He was a little worried about Kairi, but found comfort in the facts that Sora was there to pull her out if she got in over her head and that, having seen her fight first hand, he knew she was a capable, if inexperienced, fighter. Riku shifted his weight to the left in an attempt to cause Nihlus to stumble. He was only halfway successful as Nihlus did indeed stumble, breaking the deadlock in the process, but he spun around and parried Riku's blow just before it could hit.
"Nihlus, the darkness is going to consume you if you stay in it," Riku started as he and Nihlus circled each other, either searching for a sign of weakness or coming up with a plan of attack. "Believe me, I know that better than anyone, you can still come back to the light!" Riku was neither a particularly charismatic individual nor did he know why Nihlus wanted Sora's heart, but that wouldn't stop him from trying to talk Nihlus out of it. He was the best person for the job, after all, he knew exactly how addictive the power that darkness promises and gives. He also knew the dangers of siding with the darkness as well.
"Maybe I don't want you precious light, did you ever think of that!" Nihlus shot back at Riku. He seemed to be personally offended by the prospect of giving up his power. "Just shut up and fight me!" At this, Nihlus's eyes seemed to glow once more, if only for a brief second, as he charged toward Riku. He seemed to have utterly disregarded the previous amount of finesse he had shown. Riku managed to block the horizontal blow that Nihlus had thrown when he lashed out at him. Riku was forced to take a step back; he was surprised by the sheer ferocity of the strike. "How can you not see it!" he yelled as he continued to strike at Riku with his staff. All of his blows were far stronger than normal, but they lacked the finesse and grace that Nihlus had when he was in a neutral mood. Riku grunted as he blocked each blow before skillfully running The Way to Dawn down the length of Nihlus's staff and then drawing him into another deadlock, effectively negating the strength that Nihlus's anger had given him.
"What are you talking about?!" Riku demanded as he and Nihlus grappled. Nihlus let out a growl and began to struggle even harder against the deadlock that was enforced by Riku using his free hand to grab Nihlus's left wrist. When he wasn't able to escape Riku's grip, Nihlus seemed to pause, as if he had made a choice of some sort. He let go of his staff and gripped Riku's keyblade with both hands. To Riku's surprise, he pulled it diagonally downward, causing it to slice through his black leather armor and cut his chest.
Before Riku could even see if there was any serious injury dealt to Nihlus, four tentacles made of pure darkness burst forth from the enigmatic foe's back. Riku hesitated out of shock for only one brief second, but that was all the time the tentacles needed. They instantly wrapped themselves around Riku's wrists and ankles and then lifted him off the ground in front of Nihlus. To Riku's surprise, he could see the leather armor seemingly stitching itself together; the parts of Nihlus's armor that had been sliced seemed to be reaching for one another. It could only mean that the armor was made out of darkness as well. Riku watched as darkness seemed to cover Nihlus's hands. His eyes widened as he realized that heartless claws were beginning to form, replacing Nihlus's hands. Riku imediatly began to struggle in an attempt to free the hand that held his keyblade in order to escape from the tendrils, but the tentacles held fast.
Riku let out a cry of pain as he felt Nihlus's claws tear into his flesh. There was nothing he could do as Nihlus mercilessly slashed and stabbed him. Soon though, Nihlus stopped for a brief moment, only to slam Riku into the ground with his tentacles and then throw the weakened keyblade master into the closest wall. Riklu landed on his side, only dimly aware of the fact that Sora and Kairi were both yelling his name. Though he could see the blackness that foretold of losing consciousness form around the edge of his vision; he could also see that he had in fact accomplished something in his duel with Nihlus. Though the teen's leather armor had already stitched itself back together, the massive wound that Nihlus had inflicted on himself caused him to sink to his knees, placing one hand over his chest. As he fell into unconsciousness, Riku grinned weakly, content with the fact that he had effectively won the battle for Sora and Kair despite the fact that he was in agonizing pain right now.
Nihlus panted as he desperately tried to regain his strength. While he had defeated Riku by allowing the keyblade to wound him he had left Riku defenseless, unable to get his keyblade back in front of him in time to do anything about the tentacles. Unfortunately he had also severely weakened himself and to make matters worse, Sora and Kairi no doubt had an idea his capabilities now. It would be nearly impossible to just surprise them like he had done with Riku. Nihlus heard a battle yell as he struggled back onto his feet and looked up to see both Sora and Kairi charging him with near-murderous expressions on their faces. The heartless that has been distracting them were all still alive, Nihlus had ordered them to teleport back to the realm of darkness if they were about to be defeated, however it seemed that they were all stunned by a particularly powerful thundaga spell.
The tentacles that Nihlus had grown out of his back all launched themselves toward Sora, only to be either dodged or brushed aside. Nihlus managed to just barely mange a clumsy dodge that saved him from Sora's blow. However, not one second after he felt that he was safe, at least for now, he felt an agonizing pain in his back and a pounding sound in his ears. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for him as he glanced over his shoulder to see that Kairi had just finished her strike that had caused him so much agony. Before he could summon a weapon or more tentacles from the darkness, he saw Sora charging at him once more with The Kingdom Key at the ready. Nihlus's eyes widened as the blow literally sent him flying. He was abruptly stopped went he hit the wall of the room. He was only able to get on his knees, that pain from being struck repeatedly by the keyblades alone was enough to keep him from doing anything, and that wasn't even accounting for the actual wounds the weapons gave him.
Nihlus glanced up, panting as he did so, when he felt Sora approach him. The keyblade master pointed his weapon at Nihlus's neck to enforce his point. He was quickly accompanied by Kairi who did the same. "What's so special about my heart?!" Sora demanded in an angry, yet calm tone. The happy go lucky child that Sora almost always acted like had been replaced by Sora the keyblade master, no doubt a result of Nihlus harming Riku. Nihlus glared at Sora and was about to open his mouth, when suddenly the sound of even more heartless teleporting into the room reached Sora and Kairi's ears. They immediately spun around to face them; correctly guessing that Nihlus couldn't harm a fly in his current condition.
There were four invisibles, heartless that resembled muscular demons with small wings and a tail ending in an equally small axe, that all brandished the blue broadswords that they always carried in challenge. Sora and Kairi charged toward them, only to have the heartless fly to the ceiling of the chamber, out of reach. Suddenly they heard yet another heartless teleport in behind them. They both spun around to see yet another invisible appear behind them. However, this one simply wrapped one of it's arms around Nihlus's chest and then helped to lift him up. Nihlus seemed surprised by this, but quickly nodded, for what reason Sora did not know. A dark door appeared behind the invisible and Nihlus, beckoning for them to walk into it.
"This…isn't over" Nihlus said venomously as the invisible supported and guided him through the door. Sora was about to run in after them when Kairi put her hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Sora, we need to help Riku!" Kairi's voice was level, but it did carry a tone of urgency. Sora's view shifted between the dark door and Kairi before he made his choice. He turned and nodded at Kairi just as the door closed.
"I'm sorry I…" Sora started, as he looked for the right words. He had nearly abandoned his friends just to pursue Nihlus for crying out loud!
"Don't be," Kairi said as she removed her hand from his shoulder, "I'm just as mad as you are." Sora nodded uncomfortably, Kairi's attempt to comfort him wasn't doing much good. "Let's go," Kairi said, lightly tugging on Sora's arm to get his head out of the clouds. Sora nodded with more enthusiasm at. Our of everyone he knew, Kairi was the only one who could calm him down so easily.
...Though he wouldn't admit it just yet, she also held the biggest part in his heart, she meant more than anything else to him...
"Yeah, let's." Without further ado, the keyblade master and the princess of heart ran toward their downed friend, ready to heal him with both potions and spell.
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Nihlus grunted as he and the invisible walked through the end of the dark door. They had arrived at their destination, The Castle That Never Was. Nihlus remembered when he had first moved into the castle. He was leading the massive army of heartless that had stormed the place when Sora, Mickey, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy were rushing toward the altar of naught in order to confront Xemnas. Nihlus himself was busy slaughtering the remaining nobodies, while the heartless tried to delay Sora and co. long enough to actually reach them. Unfortunately, Maleficent and Pete had blocked the army from their objective. Eventually, Nihlus himself stepped in to intervene, but by the time he had driven them away, it was too late for him to actually reach Sora.
"Stupid fire magic!" he muttered to himself as he recalled what Maleficent had done in order to hold him off. Although he could have effortlessly beaten both her and Pete a dozen times over if he used his power to it's fullest extent, especially so close to the dark realm, he hadn't done so out of his desire to avoid giving people an idea of his limits. It was much easier to surprise people as he had done so with Riku when they didn't know what he was capable of. Maleficent he created numerous fire barriers that had hampered his movement for a few precious minutes before he actually reached her, forcing a retreat.
"Well, I'd say you did a pretty good job back there!" an all too familiar voice commented sarcastically. Nihlus's eyes narrowed when he heard it.
"The keyblade masters have gotten a lot stronger," he replied simply, "I'll be able to attack again in a few minutes." What Nihlus said was true. He could feel the darkness healing the wounds he had sustained in the battle. The voice didn't answer him at this, their mental link meant it's owner would be able to understand what he had planned. It would be the height of folly to immediately attack them now that they were on high alert. Nihlus would just have to occupy himself while he waited for a chance to face Sora one on one.
"I can walk by myself, thank you," Nihlus said to the invisible. It nodded it's head and tentatively withdrew itself from Nihlus's side. It's worry was unwarranted, though, as Nihlus was indeed correct. His wounds would be healed even sooner than he had expected. Nihlus walked down the corridors for a little bit before he found the door that he had been searching for. He walked into the room almost reverently. It was very plain, almost empty, except for one outstanding feature. Inside it was a metallic coffin-like structure that Nihlus approached silently, with his head bowed. He stood next to it and placed his right hand on its' surface.
"I'm sorry…" Nihlus said with his head still bowed. His voice sounded choked, as if he was on the verge of tears. His sadness soon turned to anger and rage as his thoughts began to shift from what lay in the coffin to how he had gotten the way he was, and the story behind the coffin like object. "Damn you, Xemnas…" he said to himself as he subconsciously grew heartless claws. "Damn you to Hell!" At this his claws began digging into the surface of the coffin, not enough to seriously damage it though.
"Nihlus, calm down. He's already dead, remember?" the familiar disembodied voice called out. Nihlus shook himself out of his fury and recoiled when he saw that he had scratched the coffin. He briefly berated himself for losing his temper like that, and scratching the coffin. It was one of the few reasons he had to keep on living for.
"I'm sorry it's just…" Nihlus stopped, unable to find the words that would adequately convey how he was feeling.
"I know…" the voice that had been playfully taunting him only a minute ago replied. "Where are we going next?" Nihlus allowed a weak grin to creep onto his face at his constant companion's attempt to change the subject.
"Well, Xemnas did have an office on the world Hollow Bastion before he became a nobody." Nihlus had called Radiant Garden Hallow Bastion due to the fact that all the being even vaguely associated with darkness considered Hollow Bastion to be it's true name, regardless of what the world's inhabitants thought. "There might be something there that can help…save them."
"Ah…well let's not waste any more time then. It seems that your now back in tip top condition!" Nihlus nodded and opened a dark door at this. His emotions could strengthen his powers if they were strong enough, and the bout of rage he had just experienced had accelerated his already formidable healing process.
As he walked through the portal, Nihlus could not have fathomed the significance that his actions on Radiant Garden/ Hollow Bastion would have.
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Okay, I'm still working on the rewrite of the next chapter so just think of it as a basic out line of what's going to happen. You may notice a minor continuity error or two and a major drop in quality, but don't worry, I'll have the revised third chapter up relatively soon. So, just hang in there and don't forget to review!
