Star didn't take long to find her next destination. She looked at the screen of the ship and saw that it read a strong evil presence in a large world called "Eurasia." She quickly set the coordinates for a remote part of that world and landed the ship. She got out, put the ship in her pocket, and called for Jiminy. Jiminy jumped out of her pocket and looked around. He saw an eerily calm emerald field, surrounded by a lush medieval forest.
"Ever see this place before, Jiminy?"
"Nope. Never in my life. Looks really pretty, though."
No sooner had Jiminy said that then Star heard a horrible screaming noise emitted from her left. She saw a large hill with a figure on the top, holding a smaller figure by the head. As she approached the hill, she saw that the smaller figure was a human, roughly her size, apparently some kind of warrior. He screamed in anguish as his skull was crushed. She looked at the larger figure and saw a grotesque appearance. The right arm of the creature had three enormous claws, and although most of the creature was covered in a deep blue armor, the arm was not. It wouldn't fit. Its terrible red flesh made Star cringe. It seemed to have mouths in strange places…signified by marks that appeared to be teeth on its shoulder and across its breast. The creature laughed as the man's body went limp. "Another soul to add to my power!" exclaimed the creature as it dropped the man on the ground and began to make a strange motion, as if it were sucking the very air out of the sky. The creature glowed, and the man disappeared.
Then Star saw its left hand and noticed a large sword. It appeared to be made of flesh and had metal edges. The center of the sword contained an eye, suggesting that the sword was alive! Star was unable to determine whether or not this creature was a Heartless, but one thing was certain: it was pure evil. Star backed away. No amount of training could prepare her for a battle with this creature. Not yet, anyway. She needed to get out of that area before the creature noticed her. As Star ran away, she heard more screaming, and the crunching of bone being snapped in half. The creature was taking more victims.
From afar watched a strange, shadowy presence. "Who is this creature that dares to take my name from me? I shall have a word with him, for he is interfering with my plans!"
The presence approached the creature. "You. You need to leave, now. You're interrupting my glorious plan to rule this world with my Heartless!"
The creature, upset at being interrupted, turned and looked upon this presence with orange glowing eyes. He was filled with anger. "Who dares to challenge the great Nightmare!?" demanded the creature.
The presence revealed itself to be a strange looking shadowy man, with a hairstyle that had the appearance of horns. "You fool. I am the true Nightmare. Be gone, imposter!"
The shadowy man waved his hand, trying to use some sort of evil force to push the creature away. The creature shrugged the force away as if it were a gentle summer's breeze. It only got angrier. "Why, you insolent little…I'll burn you alive!"
The creature charged at the shadowy man, who only too late realized his mistake. He caught the creature's strange sword, which then began to glow a strange red color. Soon, the man's hand began to glow red as well, followed by the rest of his body. He was being infected with something…but what? Some sort of evil aura? He shouldn't be affected by an evil aura if he was evil himself…should he?
Suddenly, the aura caused the shadowy man to burst into flame, and he vanished. The evil creature with the grotesque right arm stood in triumph and laughed. "No, you fool. I am the true Nightmare."
The creature looked back over its shoulder and turned around. It smirked evilly. At the bottom of the hill, an entire army of men was charging him. "More pathetic souls have come to feed my hunger…excellent."
Far away, Star was still running as quickly as she could. She wasn't sure if the creature had noticed her, but she wasn't taking any chances. She ran until she came upon a dense forest path, which she decided to take deep into the woods. She'd be sure to be able to hide in there until she figured out what was going on in this world.
As she continued down the dark pathway, she heard a twig snap on the ground. She looked down, about to curse herself for being noisy, when she noticed the path was clear. She hadn't made the noise. But, then…who did? She looked behind her to see if she was being followed, but no one was there. She shrugged, and turned back around. Maybe she was just hearing things. However, as she was turning back around, she found her own face within inches of the face of a young woman about her age with flowing black pigtails and a strange barrette in her hair. "Hi there!"
Star jumped. "DON'T DO THAT!"
The girl laughed. "Who are you?"
"My name is Star. I'm not from around here. And you are?"
The girl smiled. "I don't sense any evil aura in you. My name's Talim. You're not from around here? Have you come from Asia? You don't look like it."
"I'm…from another world."
"Another world? How interesting. Well, it's nice to meet you. So, why does the wind blow you here?"
"I'm on a quest to destroy the Heartless."
"Heartless? Never heard of them."
"Heartless are evil creatures that function on instinct, stealing people's hearts."
"How horrible! But there aren't any heart stealing monsters here. The only monster here is Nightmare, the wielder of Soul Edge, and he steals souls."
Star had a realization. "Nightmare! Does he have a really creepy looking right arm and a sword with an eye on it?"
Talim nodded. "Yup. The wind told me he was in this area. Have you seen him?"
Star looked down at the ground. "Yeah, I saw him. I was gonna try to take him on, but I figured he might be a bit strong for me."
Talim laughed. "And how were you gonna take on Nightmare? You don't even have a weapon."
Star held out her hand and the Keyblade materialized. It was back in its original form, the shape of a skeleton key with a golden hilt. "I have this."
"Ooooh…Looks nice. But I doubt it could take on Soul Edge. Soul Edge is a really powerful evil. It'd take Soul Calibur to actually destroy it. It's the only sword with the right kind of good magic in the world."
"In your world, maybe. But the Keyblade is magic, too. It may be able to help. I may be able to help."
"Don't you have to find those 'Heartless' you were talking about earlier?"
Star smiled. "I always have time to help out people in need."
Talim returned the smile. "Okay, but if we're gonna take on Nightmare, we're gonna need to train!"
"Just show me where to go!" Star said enthusiastically.
Talim was already running down the path. Star followed quickly, laughing.