KINGDOM HEARTS III: Final Mix
Disclaimer: I do not own the story or characters featured in this story. They are the sole creation of the Walt Disney Co., PIXAR, Tetsuya Nomura, and Square Enix. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy.
WARNING! Contains story spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III, so read with caution if you haven't played the game yet.
Chapter 4: Scaling the Mountain
With the encounter against Xigbar still fresh in Sora's mind, the heroes continued on their way down through a tunnel looking for a way back to the central marketplace. However, the path seemed to lead to a dead end.
"This can't be the end of the road!" Goofy yelped.
"Wait," Hercules told the dog man as the team quieted down and listened closer. "It sounds like something's on the other side. Do you hear it?"
"Yeah, I hear it," Sora told Hercules as he could hear rumbling footsteps and shifting rubble falling to the ground. After throwing some hard thrusts at the wall with the Keyblade, the wall collapsed, and opened a path back to the Agora, where our heroes saw a giant axe-wielding Heartless creating miniature earthquakes with the impact of its weapon.
"We've got to take it down before anybody else gets hurt!" Goofy suggested, as the team focused their spells and attacks at the 'Rock Troll' (as Donald off-handedly called it after the battle), but it seemed to do little to effect its stamina.
"We need more firepower," Hercules grunted as he leapt backwards to avoid a downward swing.
"We're about to get some!" Sora told the demigod, as he focused his spirit into summoning something, anything, that could help them. That devotion was then answered, but not quite in the way Sora expected, as a pirate ship covered with neon lights erupted out of the ground in a tidal wave. "Guess this works, now let's go!" Sora cried out as he commanded the boat to rapidly tilt around and knock the Heartless off its feet. Soon enough, it was propelled into the air and crashed into the ground after the attack finished and it was then swiftly defeated.
"Champ!" the familiar voice of Phil called out as Pegasus made its landing by the others, and both he and Megara dismounted to talk with Hercules.
"Wonderboy, we checked the perimeter," Megara told Hercules. "Everybody is safe now." The sky however began to darken as thunderclouds and smoke surrounded the mountainside in the horizon.
"Herc, I'm no meteorologist, but that looks like the sign of one very unhappy god out there," Phil told his pupil.
"Then I guess my family needs me," Hercules replied as he and the others began their trek up Mount Olympus, unaware that Xigbar was watching the entire fight play out from a rooftop as he ate a gyro he snuck from a food stand amidst the chaos.
"Heh, now that was entertainment," Xigbar mused out loud to himself.
Meanwhile, back on Mt. Olympus...
The fight against the Titans didn't seem to fare well for the Gods, as most of them had already been incapacitated.
"Hermes, I need more thunderbolts!" Zeus called out.
"I'm sorry, but Ares has already been captured, my Lord. Everyone's been captured," Hermes replied before Hades' henchmen Pain and Panic grabbed him.
"Gotcha!" Pain grunted.
"His Maliciousness Hades would like a word with you," Panic added as they flew away. In the moment while Zeus was stunned in shock, the Ice Titan and Lava Titan trapped the King of the Gods in a tower of ice and magma as their master Hades stepped forward.
"Zeus-y, I'm home!" Hades cheekily remarked before his fellow God.
"Hades... you're behind this?!" Zeus roared in surprise and anger.
"You are correct, sir! Let me tell you, I've waited eons for this moment, having you right at my mercy!" Hades replied, rubbing his hands together in fiendish glee.
Back at the summit of Mt. Olympus, Sora, Hercules and the gang made a mad dash up the mountain trail, hacking down Heartless and scaling the walls.
"Herc, you said that your family needed help at the mountain; what did you mean by that?" Sora asked.
"I guess I never really told you guys this, but my Dad is the King of the Gods," Hercules explained as he whistled for Pegasus.
"WHAAAAT?!" the three heroes exclaimed in shock. "Then that would make you-"
"-a god, yes," Hercules finished. "You guys did good, but I'll take care of things from here."
"Herc should be fine," Goofy assured. "He did say he's a god, after all."
"Yeah, but with the Organization around, we can't take any chances!" Sora said in concern. The group then proceeded to begin their climb up the mountain before they felt the earth rumble around them.
"There's something familiar about this..." Donald observed, before they looked up and saw the Rock Titan throwing down a large boulder at the team.
"TITAN!" Donald and Goofy yelped as Sora and the both of them scrambled to safety, right as the boulder crumbled blocking the path they came from.
"There's nowhere to go but forward now!" Sora spoke up as he started to run up the mountain surface, dodging the large boulders being thrown down at him until he reached a higher precipice.
"Keep running!" Donald quacked as the group kept running ahead past Heartless that tried to attack them until they reached a dead end, right below the peak of the mountain itself where the Rock Titan was waiting. Sora managed to reach the Titan's feet after some more climbing and staggered the giant with attacks from his Keyblade, doing his best to evade the Titan's stomp attack.
"This thing hits like a truck, but we can't give up now!" Sora called out to his friends.
"Because heroes never quit that easily!" Goofy added, as they succeeded in wearing it down and knocking it off-balance. Sora used his Flowmotion to climb up the Titan's legs and attack its heads long enough to build the momentum to summon a roller coaster from his Attraction Flow power. After some attacks to the Titan from the ride's chimney, Sora sent the ride flying at the Titan to take it out and send it plummeting off the mountainside.
"That thing looked tough, but it was nothing but a big blockhead!" Donald chortled.
"That'll show it a thing or two about what teamwork is made of!" Goofy added.
"We can't celebrate yet, guys," Sora warned his friends, as he looked ahead for a way to enter Olympus. "Herc still needs our help!"
"Uh, right!" Donald and Goofy replied, as they kept moving until they reached a wall barricaded by rocks. However, the group found that the barricade could easily be dispelled by swats from the Keyblade. With each hit, a ray of divine light seeped through until the wall collapsed, revealing a golden staircase leading up into a kingdom in the sky.
"I guess that must be Olympus," Sora pondered. "Well, let's get a move on!"
"You got it, Sora ol' pal! The three half-pints, back together again. Isn't it great, Donald?" Goofy cheered.
"Yeah, it is. After all, we can't forget our motto, can we? All for one..." Donald replied with a smile.
"...And one for all," Sora finished, as the gates to Olympus itself creaked open, revealing its glorious splendor to the three travelers.
And that finishes this another chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and remember to leave a review!