Chapter 10: Benuu & Schwarzritter

Disclaimer: I do not own Sora no Kiseki or Kingdom Hearts; they belong to their rightful owners. I only own part of this plot and any OC's. Enjoy!

"I don't believe this" Julia stated. They were back at the Aserlys, to find the ship completely abandoned. No one was aboard except our five heroes. "My crew isn't here…"

"Don't worry Julia" Sora said "I'm pretty sure they're ok. What I think we should do now is move on."

"Sora's right" Kevin stated "If we want to get out of this world and back to your crew, we'll need to move ahead." The group gets off and continues down the corridor to find four strange statues. "Statues? I didn't know this place had a thing for architecture."

"I don't think these are regular statues." Ries said, pointing to one, which was vibrating, then looked to find another doing the same thing, then another, and then the final one. Ries readied her sword and hacked one away with one swipe. The group was expecting to see the statue either crumble or do nothing at all. But instead it disappeared in a puff of red smoke, just like the other demons here. Julia readied her rapier, Tita pulled out her mini orbal cannon, Kevin prepared with his crossbow and Sora summoned his Keyblade. Now some more skeleton demons come out and the group proceeds to fight them off.

The groups easily scare them off and destroy the statues, and everyone calms a bit. "How come I wasn't able to sense the monster's coming?" Julia asked.

"Oh, they're not monsters" Sora replied "They're demons."

"Right. And only people of the church can sense demons." Ries added.

"Does that mean you can sense demons to Kevin?" Sora asked. Kevin nodded. His attention was fixated on something ahead.

"Do you smell that Ries? It reeks of decay- no, it reeks of netherworld. It's just floating around in the air…"

"So you think there might be a demon up ahead?" Tita asked worried. Again Kevin nodded and continued ahead, knowing what dangers lie ahead. Sora follows with Ries and Julia next to him. Tita takes in a deep breath and catches up. Once they reach a wide platform a strange red, glowing circle sprouts up from the ground. Kevin and Ries ready their weapons since they know it's a monster. Since the other three trust them, they decide to do the same. What sprouts from the circle is a strange statue demon wrapped in a gold bubble, accompanied by four statue demons. "W-what is that?!"

Music: Sora no Kiseki Genuine Devil

"It's a devil known as Benuu: Boatman of the river styx. He who guides the souls of the dead into the other world" Ries replies "One of the 77 devils of the bible."

"I don't believe the day would come to stare a devil down in the face" Kevin said "But come on! We'll show it the powers of the servants of the Goddess!" And with this they proceed to fight. The statues begin to vibrate, charging up a beam of some kind. Sora, Ries and Julia go for an up-close offensive attack on Benuu while Kevin and Tita go for a more at a distance approach. Ries attempts a Templar slash, but her sword is blocked off by the bubble, and she's sent flying back. Lucky for her she (somewhat) lands on her feet. Unfortunately she was flung into the path of one statue that finished charging up their attack. It fired a strange pink beam from its mouth, she braced herself.

"Orbal arts: Earth Guard." Kevin held out his orbment in Ries's direction. A shield of stone surrounded Ries, protecting her from injury. The attack finished and the barrier went away. Ries went off trying to attack the statues this time. She hacked at one of the statues, but it only was scratched. Not what she was hoping for.

"Orbal arts: Soul Blur!" Julia pulled out her orbment and white discs came out from it and hit one of the statues. It hacked at it, dividing the statue into a few bits before disappearing in a puff of red smoke. Benuu went ramming through, almost squashing Sora and Tita. Tita fired her orbal cannon a big projectile that managed to penetrate the shield, hurting the demon a bit.

"Orbal arts!" Sora pulled out his orbment, traced another pattern on it, and watched as a black vortex like attack struck the demon with a lot of force.

"Nice Dark Matter strike Sora!" Kevin responded "Even though you don't know what you're doing with it, you seem to be making some good progress."

"Thanks," was all Sora could say. It was true, he just got this thing today and he was already doing some serious damage with it. Could he make barriers like Kevin could? Oh well, he'll try it out when he gets the chance. Tita pulls out her orbment and fires soul blur on another statue, causing it to be destroyed. Kevin decides it's time to get serious. He holds out his crossbow and fires a dark projectile at another statue, shattering it completely. Just one left, the one Ries was brutally attacking, while trying to avoid Benuu's weird tongue. Ries delivered the final blow to the statue, and now all of our fighters had their undivided attention on the demon.

"Orbal arts: Dark Matter!" Kevin held out his orbment and did exactly what Sora did to the demon, but it was much stronger and had more effect. With that, the yellow bubble shield melted away in a weird sickening green slime, revealing its body. Ries lunged her blade out and struck the creature with a lot of power. A medium size cut was visible on its torso. Julia went in and jabbed at the thing with her rapier, puncturing its torso again. Sora threw his keyblade at it like a boomerang hitting it once one way and again another way forming an 'X' on its chest and Tita fired her cannon shattering the stone armor. Once again the armor melted away, this time revealing a soft squishy inside. "Goodbye" Kevin said. He fired another dark arrow into the squishy part in its chest, causing the demon to disappear in a puff of red light.

"Finally, it's over" Sora said.

"It was pretty strong" Tita commented.

"And we somehow managed to beat it." Kevin finished.

"Very excellent, I'd expect no less from you" spoke a familiar voice. The man in jet-black armor appeared in front of them, blocking the path forward.

"I remember you" Ries exclaimed "You're the one we saw before we were transported here."

"You! What is your name?" Julia demanded, "Seeing as to how you have ties to this place."

"To ask for another's name you should always out of politeness give your own first, Royal Elite Guard High Captain, Major Julia Schwartz." He replied sardonically.

"You must've done your research before all of this began, am I right?" Kevin asked "Tell us about the devil we just fought and this place as a matter of fact!"

"Oh please, I'm just here to give you a little present is all" The masked soldier continued, tossing a summon cube to Kevin. He catches it and looks at him suspiciously. "What? Consider that a gift from me to you. By the way, your trials have just begun, so you shouldn't fall into the pit of despair just yet."

Ries without warning attempts to attack our mystery soldier (or in my case 'stalker') but he easily pulls out his sword and knocks her back with ease. "A very good attack, worthy of acknowledgement" he went on "But not nearly as impressive as your sister." Kevin and Ries both gasp at this. "This banquet of despair within Phantasma is just the beginning. I suggest you keep on struggling futilely in the abyss of trials, for if you do not, the 'King' will not be happy." A magic circle appears under the knight.

"Are you planning on running away?" Julia asked.

"Since I'm in such a generous mood," He went on, completely ignoring Julia "I'll introduce myself. My name is Schwarzritter. Servant and defender of the great 'King' of Phantasma." With that, he leaves using the circle summoned as a means of teleporting. With Schwarzritter gone, all of their answers gone with him. What did he mean by 'pit of despair'? It made zero sense to Kevin. Considering no other options available, he uses the Arca to send them back to the Garden to see what would come out of the stone.

Once back at the Garden, Kevin holds out the stone in front of the monument, it glows, floats over and slowly descends revealing a boy with short silver hair. The way he looked was calm and collected. In any circumstance, he seemed to be the type to point things out quickly and effectively.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

The boy lifted his head to see Sora and a few other people he didn't recognize. "Sora? What's going on here?" Riku asked. Sora told Riku everything that had happened so far, where they were, and how they got there. "I see. This is going to be hard isn't it? And what were you thinking? Tagging along with people you just met. So like you sometimes."

"H-hey!" Sora exclaimed "Don't try blaming this whole mess on me now! If you were in my position you'd do the same thing!"

"Well, whatever. Point being, we're here now. Any suggestions?"

"Well, how about introductions" Julia replied.

"I'm Riku. But you should know that from my friend Sora here."

"Well I'm Kevin."

"My name is Ries."

"I'm Tita."

"And I am Julia."

"Ok, now that we're all acquainted, how about we get back down to business" Sora suggested "Why don't we start from where we left off?"

"Excellent idea Sora. That should be where we fought that demon. There was a blue monolith close by, so we can use that as a checkpoint. Sounds fair enough." Kevin pulled out the Arca and pressed the square, revealing the map and taking them to where they need to go. When they reach the end of the section they find another glowing diagram, just like before. Riku even realized he had an orbment which he never had before until now; just like Sora. Except his requires two slots for time Quartz. Some were even filled for him.

"So this is where we need to go?" Riku asked. Sora nodded. "Ok then, let's go."

"Alright, here we go." The group walked onto the strange diagram and were off. When they could see again, they were back in the capital city of Grancel.

"Are we back?" Sora asked.

"I think we are since everything looks to be normal" Kevin said.

"Hooray! We did it!" Tita exclaimed.

"Um... I don't think we're back..." Ries said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Since when did this town get gates like that?" Ries pointed out. The others turned around to find a black gate with the Liberl country symbol on each of the doors.

"No!" Julia exclaimed. She ran ahead to find all of the streets teeming with more demons. "This is impossible, how can they re-create this entire town! It doesn't make sense!"

A.N.: ATTENTION READERS! Next chapter will have more characters (REJOICE!) And I will now ask for a vote (ends when I put up new chapter). I need a team of four for next chapter, and two characters will need to remain back at the Garden. Characters who can't be changed: Kevin and Ries. Interchangeable characters:

Tita Russell

Julia Schwarz

Sora

Riku

Any two will do. Either PM me or put it in reviews. But if you want to see the characters of your choice, you MUST do this.