Chapter 13: Fear of Darkness
After sadly leaving the previous world, Manami finally came upon a new world. Dozen's of questions filled her head right now. Where were Daichi and Miku now? What has happened to them? What is the goal of the boy in the mask? What of Master Xehanort? And just what had really happened since they had fallen into the Realm of Darkness?
"I need to find answers." Manami said to herself as she began to run to the old and gloomy castle in front of her.
Enchanted Dominion
Manami entered the front gates of the old castle and looked around. "Maybe I should have gone the other direction. It seems unlikely anyone's actually in this place." She whispered to herself, seeing nothing around that would point to the castle still being occupied.
However, something suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, and its sight made Manami run and hide around a corner. It was a pathway of darkness. Manami watched as a figure walked out of the darkness and found that it was the boy in the mask she had seen spreading the unversed through the worlds. "It's him," Manami said to herself, making sure to keep her voice down. The boy looked around for a second and then headed deeper into the castle. "Where's he going?" Manami wondered, and chased after him.
However, upon following him to the next section of the castle, the boy was already turned to face her, as if he had already known she was there. "Oh, it's you again." The boy said in a disapproving way. "I thought I took care of you the first time we met."
"You shouldn't have underestimated me. Now what are you doing here; planning to send out your unversed to destroy this world too?" Manami accused, bringing out her Keyblade and pointing it at him.
"No, I've already done that. I've got a different job here today." The boy told Manami. "However that also means I have no time for you, so…" He said and waved his hand, and his unversed appeared. "Make sure you die properly this time, okay?" He said mockingly and turned around and ran into the castle.
"Hey, get back here!" Manami shouted and ran for the boy, but was stopped by the unversed. "Out of my way!" Manami shouted, and began to clear the way.
Manami swung her Keyblade to both sides, destroying two Floods in front of her. Then she black flipped out of the way of a Red Hot Chili's fire spell and retaliated with a blizzard spell that knocked it back and allowed her to run up and strike it to finish it off. Once she had done that she threw her Keyblade to her right at a Bruiser, and had it vanish and come back to her hand and repeat the process two more times to finish it off; but left her back open as a scrapper struck her from behind twice.
She turned around and struck it twice to defeat it, but as it always seemed to be, the assault would not be ended so simply. Another hoard of unversed surrounded her anew, restarting her battle.
Once she had finally made it so that the unversed stopped appearing, she looked over in the direction the boy had run off and followed after him. He had said he had other business to do here. Whatever that was exactly, it couldn't be good.
As she entered into a kind of throne room, Manami heard the masked boy speak around the corner. "Make sure you use this power correctly. We don't need anymore screw ups like with the Princess of Heart, got it?" He told someone.
The term 'Princess of Heart' triggered something in Manami's memories, but the concept was still clouded in her mind, but she could remember they were important. "You dare insult my power?" A woman in a dark dress and holding a scepter in one hand accused the masked boy. "If you had cared to mention the other girl I would not have failed!" The woman shouted.
Manami focused more intently on the conversation, wondering if perhaps this 'other girl' she was talking about might be Miku. "Other girl?" The masked boy question, and looked over toward the entrance thinking of Manami.
"She went by the name of Miku, but I was only told of three young Keyblade wielders." The woman told him.
"Well the thing is we actually didn't know they were around either. I never brought it up to him because they were weak from what I'd seen. If you really had trouble with one of them then maybe you aren't fit for the job."
"How dare you, You should learn your place!" The woman said, binging up her scepter as if preparing to fight.
"I think you're the one who needs to be taught a lesson." The masked boy replied, bringing out his Keyblade of Darkness, prepared to return the challenge.
"Wait just a minute!" Manami shouted, and both of them turned to face her as she stopped and brought out her Keyblade.
"Another Keyblade Wielder?" The woman asked, annoyed by the lack of information she had been given.
"So this isn't the one you had trouble with. Then that means there are three of them." The masked boy said.
"What," The Woman reacted, truly ready to break the boy's neck over this.
"What do you know about Miku, where is she?" Manami asked the woman.
"Hmpf, I have no idea where your friend is. She fled from here quite some time ago." The woman replied.
Manami scowled at this response, the two people before her had both met with one of her friends, but she was still nowhere closer to finding them herself. "Either way, I'm not about to let the two of you off easy!" Manami declared.
"This could be a good opportunity." The masked boy said. "Prove you're not worthless and defeat this girl with the power I gave you. They're already irrelevant, so I don't care what you do with her afterwards." He told her and vanished into a portal of darkness.
The woman scoffed. "Impudent boy, who do you think you are talking to?" She said and then waved her staff, and a huge Unversed that had the form of a spinning wheel.
Manami gasped at the sight, as it was the same thing the evil queen in the previous world had done. Although the unversed were produced by the boy in the mask, he apparently had the ability to give others temporary control of the monsters.
"Sadly I don't have the patience to deal with you myself, so I'll just have to use these horribly simple creatures." The woman said as the Wheel Master then charged at Manami.
Manami jumped to the side and it skidded to a halt as it began to turn back around. Manami ran up to it and struck it with her Keyblade using a couple combos, but then the Wheel master swung its arms at Manami, knocking her back.
Manami got back to her feet, but when she began running toward the Wheel Master again, it shot out its yellow thread and entangled Manami in it, dragging her closer to it. Manami struggled and managed to break herself free of the thread and then threw a fira spell at the unversed's head and follow up with a combo and finished with a thunder surge, landing behind it.
But then the Wheel Master began spinning around rapidly and then threw its spinning wheel at her, which she only narrowly avoided. Manami went in to strike the Wheel Master once more, but after one attack it suddenly leapt into the air and fell to crush her. Manami jumped forward and avoided the Wheel Master which also picked up its wheel. Then Manami used her hand to flip her up and around before the shockwave produced struck her down and shot a blizzara spell at it.
When it hit however, the Wheel Master raged with dark flames and began charging at Manami again. Manami didn't have time to dodge and was knocked back, but managed to recover quickly and use a fire dash to counter. Next Manami turned and used another combo on it, then jumped to its head and slashed it once more.
Manami jumped back just before the Wheel Master swung its arms again. Then, the Wheel Master shot its thread at Manami again, but this time she was ready and blocked the thread and cast a fire spell that knocked the unversed out. Taking the opportunity, Manami strung together a few combos before the Wheel finally got back to its feet in another rage of dark flames, knocking Manami to her back.
As Manami got to her feet, the Wheel Master span around to throw its wheel again, but Manami used a sudden thundaga spell and broke the wheel, sending it into yet another dark flame rage and charged at her.
Manami was starting to get used to the Wheel Master's attack patterns and dodged to the left of its charge and then cast a fira spell at it. The fira struck the Wheel Masters spool of thread and broke it as well, but this time resulted in the unversed once again falling to its knees, opening it up to attack.
Manami ran forward and attacked three times, and at last finished it off, and it faded away to nothing, leaving her in the room with Maleficent who had been watching.
"Worthless creature; and that boy actually had the nerve to call me useless!" Maleficent shouted out with the result of the battle.
Manami pointed her Keyblade up at Maleficent. "Now tell me everything you know about Miku." She ordered.
"I've already said I know nothing of your friend's whereabouts." Maleficent retorted. "I have no more time to waste squabbling with you. Leave my castle this instant!" Maleficent shouted at Manami.
"Not a chance," Manami rejected and prepared to fight.
"Then I will remove you by force." Maleficent said and swung her rod to point it at Manami.
At that instant, a pool of darkness opened up underneath Manami, and her leg dropped into it as it began to swallow her. "What-" She gasped as she began sinking quickly into the darkness. "No, please no. Not the darkness!" Manami shouted and did everything she could to pull herself out of the pool of darkness, which did nothing but remind her of the horror of being trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
Maleficent did nothing but laugh at the torment she was causing Manami as she struggled fruitlessly to get out of the darkness engulfing her. The deeper Manami sank, the tighter she gripped at the ground to try and pull herself free, but with each second she only sank further down.
Manami continued to scream until she was completely swallowed up into the darkness and the portal closed behind her, and Maleficent only laughed, as she would be able to shove this back into the face of the boy in the mask.