Chapter 25 (Remastered Version)

After an intense and exhausting battle, the last of the Out Lander lions fell to the ground in defeat, as Sora and the others stood before them in triumph. "Heh, they weren't so tough." Sora said as he was breathing heavily.

"Hey, what's that?" a startled Roxas alerted. The party quickly turned around to see dark clouds covering the land even greater than before, and dark lightning was flashing throughout the entire sky.

"We're too late." Naminé said in horror.

"Not if I can help it! C'mon!" Simba said as he and the others ran to the Savannah.

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When the party arrived, they saw the entire Savannah was covered with Heartless, with the giant Heartless hovering in the air.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Riku yelled in shock and frustration at the large number of Heartless there were.

"There's gotta be like a thousand of them." Ven observed as he scanned the Savannah.

"No way, more like five thousand." Kairi corrected.

"Plus, a giant monster in the sky," Sora added in. At this point, Sora knew they had no choice and turned towards Donald.

"Donald, we've got no choice. Undo the transformation spell on us."

"What?-!" Donald loudly quacked, "But Sora, we have to uphold the law!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" Sora countered.

Donald was unsure of what to do and turned to Mickey. "Your majesty, what should we do?"

"I'll have to agree with Sora on this one," Mickey answered, "These forms restricts us too much, and while it may be against the law, against an enemy like this, we can't have that."

"Well, alright." Donald replied with uncertainty. Donald pointed Save the Queen to the sky and fired eleven orbs of light into the sky. The orbs came down and touched each of the party members, enveloping them in a bright flash of light. When the light cleared, the party was returned to their normal forms. All the humans stretched their arms in relief of returning to normal.

"That feels so much better." Riku commented as he stretched his arms.

"This should make things much easier." Terra added in.

"Let's take care of the small fry first before dealing with the big guy up there." Aqua suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." agreed Mickey.

"Let's go!" Naminé exclaimed as everyone summoned their weapons.

"I'll lead the attack on the way in!" Sora said. The others nodded in agreement. The party charged the second towards the battalions of Heartless right behind Sora; ready to go into all out war. As the party was getting closer, Sora quickly changed into Valor Form, summoning both Ultima Weapon and Ultima Edge. As soon as they reached the front of the battalions, Sora initiated Sonic Strike, spearing through scores of Heartless with the party right behind him. Sora then quickly deactivated Valor, and switched the Wisdom. He jumped into the air and fired a large Firaga spell, which took out a large group of Shamans.

Kairi changed into Valor Form as well and summoned Divine Rose to her left hand. She began slicing through enemies by using her Keyblades like spinning saws. Kairi immediately followed up with Over the Horizon and lunged forward while swinging her Keyblades rapidly, slicing apart several Living Bones. She then finished with Sonic End, destroying several more Living Bones and Shamans with furious slashes.

Riku cut through rows of enemies combining his sword skills with his great speed and agility. Any enemy Riku cut down was destroyed without them even realizing what happened. Riku then turned to see a group of Necromancer Heartless lunge towards him at once, wildly slashing their claws towards his chest. Riku immediately countered with Dark Shield and blocked all the attacks at once. Suddenly, a Living Bone charged from behind and spun towards Riku, swinging its tail at his back. Riku noticed the attack and quickly brought up Way to the Dawn with his right arm, only to have the Keyblade knocked from his hand by the Living Bone's tail.

The Living Bone's tail then came back towards Riku. Riku quickly used his right arm to make another Dark Shield to block the attacks from both sides. "I could use some help here!" Riku called out.

"On it!" Terra acknowledged, and quickly used Sonic Shadow. Terra soared through the air and pierced through the Heartless surrounding Riku. Riku let down his Dark Shields as soon as the Heartless were destroyed.

"Thanks." Riku said.

"No problem. Don't worry, I've got your back." Terra replied, only for a group of Shamans to pounce on him from behind. Riku immediately summoned One Winged Angel into his hand and jumped over Terra, destroying the Heartless with a single swing from the Keyblade.

"And I've got yours." Riku added in. Terra smiled and nodded in agreement. Terra immediately activated Critical Impact, while Riku activated Darkstrom, and the two charged towards the Living Bones in their way. Terra swung up with Ends of the Earth and cut down a Living Bone with ease. he then spun around and swung up again and took out another one with no problems.

Riku flew down from above and cut another Living Bone clean in half. As soon as the Heartless dissipated, Riku noticed his Way to the Dawn sticking out of the ground behind it. With a confident smirk, Riku threw One Winged Angel towards the last Living Bone. The Keyblade stabbed through the head easily. Riku quickly retrieved Way to the Dawn and charged towards the Living Bone, cutting down with two powerful swings.

Ven, while using his Fever Pitch Command Style, was cutting through enemies with incredible speed. Ven quickly used Stun Edge and cut down two Necromancers with one swing. He quickly followed up with Strike Raid, and threw Wayward Wind with incredible speed. The flying Keyblade sliced through a group of Shaman and Necromancers, before returning to Ven's hand. However, Ven soon found himself surrounded by a large number of Shamans. The Shamans all cast a spell at him, causing blue flames to appear at Ven's feet. Ven braced himself for the attack, only for Aqua to come to his aid.

She quickly used Barrier and saved both herself, and Ven, from the deadly flames. "Be more careful, Ven!" Aqua said as she let down the Barrier and activated Spell Weaver.

"Don't worry, I will be." Ven assured. The Shamans attacked from all directions, but Ven knew he had them cornered. "Wind!" Ven yelled as he cast an Aero spell. The attacking Shamans were drawn into the small green storm, and were quickly destroyed. The two apprentices charged forward and attacked the Living Bones in front of them. However, these Living Bones had Shamans and Necromancers riding on their backs. The small Heartless all cast fire spells at Ven and Aqua, while the Living Bones spun towards them with their tails.

Ven used Dodge Roll to avoid the fire and a couple Living Bones, while Aqua avoided them using Cartwheel. Aqua quickly used her telekinesis and swung Stormfall at the Living Bones, decapitating all of them at once. Despite this, the headless bodies continued to attack Aqua with their tails. Aqua was easily able to avoid the tails thanks to her agility.

Ven quickly used his Fever Pitch finisher and killed three Living Bones with speedy swings, and finishing the Shamans with the lines of light. Aqua followed up and used her Spell Weaver finisher, killing the rest with her magical spin.

Roxas and Naminé were quickly found themselves surrounded by an extremely large number of Rapid Thrusters. The two nodded to each other, and used their new Shotlock ability. "Ladies first." Roxas insisted.

"Why thank you." Naminé replied. She turned her attention to the Heartless before her, and immediately activated her Wave Rider Shotlock. While covered in an aura of water, Naminé speared through a large number of the Heartless, targeted or not. As soon as she finished her attack, Roxas used his Shotlock, 13 Beams, to finish off the remainder of the Heartless. Roxas then immediately charged towards a group of unsuspecting Necromancers, killing them all at once with Duel Stance.

Roxas and Naminé were quickly surrounded again, so they decided to try their new Limit, Sacred Flight. Naminé dismissed Two Become One as Roxas handed her Oathkeeper. The two grabbed one anothers hands while they held their Keyblades to the sky with their other hand. They began to glide extremely fast along the ground while surrounded by a bright white glow. As they glided through enemies, they slashed them with their Keyblades, utterly destroying the Heartless. The two then quickly jumped high into the air, and floated above the creatures below. The Keyblades floated from their hands; Oathkeeper surrounded by a bright white aura, as Oblivion was surrounded by a black aura.

Roxas floated behind Naminé, and wrapped his arms around her waist as she brought her hands together as if in prayer. A pair of white angel wings appeared from Naminé's back as a pair of black angel wings appeared from Roxas's back. Naminé began singing a divine melody with the voice of an angel. Her wings and Roxas's began glowing as they rose their wings up to the sky.

Feathers began shooting off their wings and shot towards enemies below. Enemies were instantly skewered one after another as the sharp energy feathers pierced through them. Finally, a bright light shot down and incinerated all creatures within its range. Their wings disappeared as the two landed on the ground. Oathkeeper and Oblivion returned to Roxas's hands, as Naminé summoned Two Become One. The two shared a quick kiss before returning to the fight at hand.

Mickey was having no trouble slicing through enemies since he was very fast and agile. He Pearl attack to great effect since balls of light energy greatly effected beings of darkness.

Simba slashed his way through enemies easily since he had battle experience from the past. If creatures tried to attack him from behind, he would land a powerful back kick to them. The gang quickly grouped up to see there were only about two thousand five hundred enemies left.

Sora used his Golden Sun Command Style to cut through enemies like they were nothing. He then used his Holy Burst Shotlock, taking out a group of Neoshadows with ease. He then followed up with his Golden Sun finisher. He quickly cut down five more Neoshadows before firing a golden fireball of light. The fireball exploded, taking down a group of Shamans. However, several more Neoshadows attacked from behind, pinning him to the ground before he could react.

"Get off me!" Sora yelled as he struggled against the strength of the numerous Heartless. More Neoshadows came charging in and piled continually on Sora. Then, without a moment's notice, a bright gold light was shining from where Sora was in the large pile. A large burst of light was then released, blasting all the Heartless off Sora. At that moment, Donald and Goofy joined Sora's side.

"Are you okay, Sora?" Donald asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright.' Sora answered. The trio turned to see more Neoshadows, and Living Bones charging in. "I think it's time for some teamwork. Right?"

Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement. At that moment, the trio initiated their Trinity Limit. They began with Major Drive and fired a large barrage of Drive Orbs, driving back the Heartless. Next was Ultima, creating a series of fireworks that slightly damaged the Heartless. Finally, they used Break, hitting the Heartless with a barrage of mid-air slashes. The three landed and joined their weapons in the middle, creating a light in the center. When they raised their weapons up, a bright light exploded from the smaller one, engulfing and destroying a large number of Heartless.

The grueling battle continued for what felt like hours. The party huddled together in the middle, exhausted to the point of collapse.

"Damn it! There's still so many of them." Roxas tiredly growled as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"We can't stop now." Sora said with increased breathing.

"We've gotta find a way to take them all out at once somehow." Riku suggested.

"Yeah, but how?" Ven asked.

Suddenly, Aqua collapsed to her knees; her hand clutching her heart, and her face filled with pain. Terra quickly went to his friend's aid. "Aqua, you okay?" Terra worryingly asked. In that instant, a bright light shined from Aqua's chest, catching everyone's attention.

"What's happening?-!" Mickey exclaimed as he and the rest of the party shielded their eyes from the bright light.

"It's just like before." Aqua thought as she remembered the same light from when she defeated the Original Cog.

Aqua screamed in pain as the light intensified and burst forth from her chest. The result was a magnificent explosion of light that engulfed the entire Savannah in its glory. As soon as the light faded, the party unshielded their eyes, only to behold the Savannah cleared of all the Heartless surrounding them. Everyone's eyes fell on Aqua, whose face was overcome with exhaustion.

Terra quickly attended to his friend, "Aqua, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down and placing a supportive hand on her shoulder.

"I'm... I'm okay." Aqua assured, but soon enough, she fainted in Terra's arms.

"No good, she's out cold." Terra said as he cradled Aqua in his arms. A monstrous roar brought the party's attention to the massive heartless hovering above the Savannah. At that moment however, more Pride Lands Heartless manifested around the party, adding more complication to the situation.

"We've gotta take that thing out now." Roxas said.

"But we can't fight it and the other Heartless while protecting Aqua." Goofy countered. At that moment, Sora came up with a plan.

"Okay, here's what we'll do. Kairi, you Naminé, and Mickey tend to Aqua. Ven, you, Simba, Donald, Goofy, and Terra take care of the Heartless still around. Riku, Roxas, and I will deal with big and ugly up there. " Sora suggested.

Ven nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a plan."

Terra gently laid Aqua on the ground, and his party turned their attention to the remaining Heartless on the ground. "Let's go!" Terra exclaimed. He charged for the Heartless, with Ven, Simba, Donald, and Goofy right behind him,

As Mickey quickly attended to Aqua, Kairi and Naminé gave their loves worried looks, "Be careful," they said.

Roxas and Sora both gave them a reassuring smile before they took to the skies alongside Riku.

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