KINGDOM HEARTS 3.6 Chapter 151:
The Sailor, the Sea and the Ram's Horn 4.
On the 13th Day of the 7th Month of Orichalcum's stay at Regnum Stratera-the Kingdom of Balance. A certain event occurs between both him...and king Torque, whom Oric treasures as a newfound friend. The king had called Oric to the library to discuss something with him...something that greatly caught Oric's attention. "Yes, your majesty? you summoned me? what is this all...about!?" says Oric, as he then looks at a book that the king was holding.
It contained a picture...it was...the Ram's Horn! the very same conch that Oric had been using to traverse the Worlds with. "...You once told me not too very long ago...about an encounter that changed your life. I thought strange...and then I remembered something that my grandfather once told me. Before the establishment of the kingdom...my grandfather proclaimed to have ordained a prophecy. I was young and the adults mostly kept this information secret, in fear of the founding king's own "royal" blood having been hallucinating with madness..." says king Torque, showing an expression of lament upon his face.
"However, my grandfather was no fool. He was NOT suffering with insanity...everything he spoke of absolutely...was indeed, the truth. Altogether my father and him never saw eye to eye...I believed his words. My grandfather was a kind and generous man...the same as you, Oric. I saw the same traits within you when we first met. I was...astonished. I thought perhaps you were an "otherworldly angel", sent by my grandfather. Or perhaps...you were a reincarnation of the man himself." says the king, as he closes the book with both hands harshly...
"Torque...what are you saying? I am me, the same, as I have always been..." says Oric with Torque replying "Are you though? are you now perhaps instead someone else, having left your islands way past behind you? tell me. Are you really...benevolent as you claim to be, Oric. Are you really...a man of worthy virtue? do not misunderstand. I don't doubt your inner true nature...it is that conch you have been carrying. My grandfather's prophecy spoke of an ill bearing, relating to it. He once told me a story about something called the "Seven Star Seas Shell". A mouthful...but a name, none the less." says king Torque, speaking what he believes to know about the Ram's Horn.
"People used those Shells to traverse Seven Seas, waiting in the Stars. At first, I thought it was just make-believe by my grandfather to entertain both me and my father when he was my age. But now? seeing that conch in person...I can now guarantee that it is NOT a fairy tale. My grandfather was right about that Shell...both the good, AND the bad." says the king, as he slowly walks towards Oric.
"W-What?" says Oric in reply with the king continuing explaining "Those Shells, whilst handy...were incredibly dangerous. My grandfather told me that they gather a living, universal energy source called Lux...and with it. A both strange and mysterious great power would emerge from all of the gathered Lux...bringing forth with it...catastrophe. It is no coincidence that those black demons have been invading my kingdom, as of late. It was a precursor to my grandfather's prophecy...YOU are the doom that will befall my harmonious city-Orichalcum!" says king Torque, deathly pointing his finger towards Orichalcum, accusing him of being a threat to Regnum Stratera!
"WHAT!? that's nonsense Torque! have you lost your mind!?" says Oric on the defensive, wanting to maintain his honour against this accusation of the highest kind. "My grandfather was no fool...and this book here, written by him explains it all. He spoke of an unknown traveller whom one day come to this land with conch in hand...and bring forth ruin with it. The gathered "Light" within the conch would summon to it's beck and call demons of the blackest night or "Darkness" if you prefer and alongside them, they would destroy all things that bared their way. Don't you see? Orichalcum...YOU HAVE BEEN SUMMONING THEM WITHOUT EVEN BEING AWARE!" shouts out the king...
His words greatly sting Oric but cause him to have some kind of epiphany. What if it was true? what if...the Heartless were following Oric everywhere he went. Once the Ram's Horn had gathered enough "Light" inside of it that the monsters would start trailing after Oric to the places he travelled? it would explain their later appearances by the time he arrived at the Land of Dragons onwards. If this was truly the case...was Oric…truly in the wrong-a menace...to the entire universe itself? …
Fearful of the impending doom, the king has become filled with paranoia for his beloved Kingdom of Balance. "I cannot allow you to be here...not as long as you carry that conch." suddenly...a shroud of Darkness starts to surround the king's shoulders. "!? T-Torque!" says Oric, sensing the malice behind the shroud emitting itself around the king...as he lastly replies:
"You are a danger to this land! BEGONE! foul nomad!" says the king until the Darkness consumes him whole one minute...and then the next, he emerges...in the form of a Humanoid Crow like Heartless!
To be Continued.