The End of Maxillian
As Victor, Sora and co. made their way back to Randgriz with many of the members of Squad 7 right behind them squaring off against many of Maximillian's Imperials and as they arrived in Randgriz, found that the front gate was dismantled by a gigantic metallic 'beast'. It was the Marmota from back in the Kloden Wildwoods and up at the top of the mechanical nightmare, Maximillian awaited his foes with great anticipation. Alicia, Welkin, Victor, Sora, Donald and Henry went up top to find Maximillian, via Victor's instantaneous imaginative powers, which teleported them to the top without fail.
There awaiting them, Maximillian was in stunning, silver armor, covering his once white robed body, and in his right and left hands, a Valkyrian Lance and Shield: the same ones from Princess Cordelia's throne room. Welkin asked, "Alright Maximillian, what've you done with Princess Cordelia?" The mighty prince laughed sinisterly pointing his mighty weapon to his foes and Victor saw the darkness in his eyes. Victor shocked sensed something familiar in the form of deja vu. Sora also picked up on this as well feeling the same dark energy coming off of Maximillian. "So you little vermin thought that you could just get past my brilliant creation and get away with a short pleasure cruise did you?", he growled at our heroes. Victor then said, "What manner of being are you then? You clearly are not Maximillian, from what I can see." "I am...Darkness, half of your power and half of your being. I represent the future of this world and all who oppose the 'dark'. This foolish man sought out vengeance upon his own people for trying to kill him when his mother died in a terrible train accident. His heart clung to me like a babe to a mother for sustenance. Such a pity, he grew up under my wing and like your precious friend Riku, grew powerful because of it. All it cost him was the beautiful Selvaria's life.", Darkness revealed himself through Maximillian.
Sora, Victor, Donald and Henry grew shocked and gasped as Alicia and Welkin turned to them and asked about Darkness. Victor then told Welkin, "Darkness is my essentially as his name implies, my sin my own personal dark feelings within me incarnate as a being...half a being that is. However, I defeated him in my own mind and we fused together though. So then how did you escape then Darkness? Some new power or trick perhaps?" Maximillian's eyes turned completely white as Darkness said, "I essentially became a different being when you fused with me boy. I was able to separate myself from you and become a whole being once I came into this world. With this man as my puppet I shall fulfill Pyros' dreams and plunge this world into darkness itself. With my powers, I can burst through any keyhole, be they locked or unlocked. But before I do, I shall test my new found powers on you all first." Darkness destroyed the Marmota in split second, severing any connections to the Imperials and Squad 7 and they were all teleported into a 'black abyss', void of any life and any help from friends at all.
(For this next battle, I chose Guardano Nel Buio as the main song for this since it is the most appropiate.)
Maximillian launched a fiersome giant blue lazer blast towards Alicia and Welkin, just as it would've hit them on the bullseye, Sora and Victor jumped right in front of it, deflecting the mighty blast as best they could: Kingdom Key and Sword of Light combined. Maximillian demonstrated his might and power to the rest of the group with ease: Alicia ran until she was only ten feet away from the possessed man and shot him twenty times right in his face, under neath his protective armor. To no avail, Darkness grabbed hold of the girl and slammed her into a hard like wall, he crafted from the abyss itself. It entangled itself around Alicia in the form of black thorns, which pierced her delicate skin, making her bleed rose coloured blood.
Welkin gritting his teeth ran fast as he could behind Maximillian exposing his weakness near his back by open firing forty bullets right across a mechanical backpack providing electricity throughout the Valkyrian Lance and Shield he held. Likewise, Maximillian went behind Welkin and blasted him away with his shield and entangled him in a barrage of black thorns and gooey black ooze. Darkness laughed sinisterly as clouds began forming over the land of Gallia. All seemed lost indeed: Rosie and Largo tried to calm the other squad elites in Squad 7 down, as the Princess Cordelia looked onward from her palace balcony into a dark cloudy sky beginning to form over their land. Donald and Henry tried their luck together combining Henry's quick yet precise attacks with Donald's magic against the mechanical backpack of Maximillian's, but the monstrous blonde man blasted away the two with his Valkyrian Lance capturing them in a black ooze as well.
Victor then thought, 'So that's how he's doing it. He's not really trying to destroy us: he only wants to do battle with me. Typical...now only thing I..." just before he could finish his thought, Sora ran in his golden armored suit with his fake Sword of Light towards Darkness attempting to do some damage against him, succeeding very little in the long run as he also got captured and tossed into black ooze as well, leaving Victor alone to square off against this newly empowered foe: a vast sea of 'darkness' against a tiny island of 'light'. Victor squared off against Darkness, lashing out against the being's great power, not gaining an inch and getting battered around by the man's lance as he was blasted in his stomach, smacked in the face by the mighty Valkyrian shield and blown away by Darkness' great power. Sora and the others couldn't bear to watch as Darkness slowly gained the upperhand in this fight. "What good is a tiny flicker of light against a great sea of Darkness? You clung to the light and its power for so long, you forgot how invincible you could be boy. So why? Why choose the light? Even your friends have given up on you." Victor getting blown away by another great Valkyrian blast from the lance did about ten back flips until he clung his Sword of Light into the ground to slow down his projected flying distance. Wiping off the blood from his left cheek Victor laughed confidently. Watching carefully, Henry looked up as did Donald, Sora, Alicia and Welkin gasping as this occured.
Darkness gritted his teeth in the form of Maximillian as he asked, "What's so funny?!?!?!" "You are Darkness. You never learn. Worlds could fall into and be saved from Darkness many times. My heart was lost to you many times: the first being when I left my own home in Calgary. But so what? Did I lose my fight against bad guys like you? No. Did Sora give up fighting the Darkness when things got rough? No. I find it ironic at how slow you've gotten. Even with the power of Darkness, you villains never did hold a candle to me: the greatest villian of all time. For you see, no matter how great you think you are: Darkness will never be invincible. Light is invincible because it has determination, which you lack. Darkness has strength though, which Light lacks, yet good always wins with determination. No amount of power can change that.", Victor said. Darkness roared into Victor's face, "SILENCE!!!!!" as he grabbed the boy with one hand and said, "What power does this light of yours have that I don't? You are about to die and nothing will change that either. Since I am not bound by your laws anymore, I can't die when you do either. So it looks like I win." Victor smiled as Henry and Sora looked to each other and shrugged shoulders.
Yet from out of nowhere, Faldio Landzaat ran quickly to the mechanical backpack and severed its connections to the lance and shield to which he said, "That'll teach you to be so ignorant. We were both fools. Fools who were trying to conquer the powers of the Valkyria. I'm sorry I didn't realize that when I had the chance to realize that when I did. I'm sorry Welkin, Alicia and to everyone in Squad 7 and especially our foreign friends from other worlds." Welkin smiled with Alicia confidently. Soon Sora and Henry smiled confidently as Victor regained his power and shattered the black abyss and dispersed Darkness from the world of the 'Anime Planet' let alone Gallia. Maximillian's body dissolved and vanished into thin air as everyone arrived back in Gallia. Shortly thereafter, Welkin, Alicia, Squad 7 and Victor and co. were all called to Princess Cordelia's throne room for medals of honor and for saving them from the very clutches of evil and darkness itself. Faldio, also being redeemed was rewarded the greatest medal of all: The Medal of Bravery and Light, a single recognition of great valor, friendship before duty, and goodness before glory.
Victor bowed to Princess Cordelia as did Sora, Henry and Donald saying, "You majesty, we were humbled to help in any way we could, but we must be on our way regretfully. Other worlds may require our assistance and the Squadron will not rest until they have their goal met: ultimately, it could also involve the destruction of this very universe as we know it." Loud gasps filled the air, as Prime Minister Borg was sent off to jail for trying to bartyr the Princess' life for his own upon meeting Maximillian. Sora asked Victor, "Is this really true?" Victor nodded as he told Sora, "Mike and I along with Chris were reporting our findings along this journey while you guys often trailed off to sleep, being responsible for this world and others and all. We came across something startling though in that Book of Secrets we found in that chain of sewers a while back. It was a prophecy that warned of a great destruction that could befall the universe should all the Princesses of Life be gathered together with the Oracle of Destiny: namely Henry Capulet here. There's not a lot of time to explain, we must go now." Yet even as they did, Alicia gave Sora a lion's paw flower: essentially a double stemmed dandelion for luck and wished them luck as they disappeared into one of Victor's white portals.
(A crazy twist, I should say. Darkness has been revived and he isn't too happy either. Anyways I'd like to take a step back and talk about another story I was working on before, but sadly got interrupted on again and again: the Perfect Trio. So why go back to it then? While it isn't as glamerous as the other stories I have written, it still is very essential to the Eternal Beyond and of course Victor, Mike and Chris meeting Sora though. Since it is a very long story though I thought I would split it up into 4 volumes, just to lighten the load and also because each of these four volumes has a different tone than the other: the first one is the darkest of them all and ultimately the saddest, the second more or less like KH1, the third volume is a lot like KH 2/ 358/2 days, and the last volume a mix of the first volume and second volume.)
