Chapter 26: Elven Strife Pt 3
Abigail is overlooking a ruined military base that belonged to the Light Elves to see a mass of dead corpses and broken machines littering the entire base. "Well quite the handiwork we have here," Abigail said as she sense someone behind her.
"Abigail, how is your progress?" Ophelia asked to pop out of the dark portal to look at the broken base.
"I am following leads but it turn out to be a big bust like your chest," Abigail joked as Ophelia is not amused by her bad joke. "Fine gee, always a buzzkill," she said.
"Also, we need to grab that Keystone the traitors manage to take from Olympus," Ophelia said.
"Hey, do you know anyone who is strong enough to kill this whole base. I don't think even you and Nazo can do this," Abigail said.
"Yes, there are reports of a sliver haired man with very long sword going around collecting Magicite. He is very dangerous and operating on his own," Ophelia said.
"Should we be taking care of him?" Abigail asked.
"No, he seems to be keeping to himself but he is worth checking on if he does go after us," Ophelia said. "Anyway, since this turn up nothing, I manage to find one of the Keystones within the Caribbean. Go search for it," Ophelia said.
"Alright, my pet can go eat some pirates," Abigail said to go into a dark portal to head off.
"Soon this world like many others will be one once again under my master," Ophelia said to disappear into the darkness.
Back Kairi and the others for they reached the ruined Light Elf military camp to see its in ruins with dead bodies and broken machines scattered everywhere. "What happened here," Riku pondered to see large patches of blood across the camp to see the elven soldiers were slice in half.
"This is awful, such brutal methods," Kairi said.
"Who could do this?" Sora wondered feeling sorry for them.
"This seems like the Dark Elf military took care of these people. Despite we were mistreated, my people are truly vicious in our combat against the Light Elves," Umiko said.
"Yep, there are assholes on both sides trying to one up who can be the bigger dick," Prishe said.
"A true cycle of death and revenge," Ulmia said to sound sadden by this fact.
"Would you want to do something about this?" Sora asked.
"No, this is life on Alfhelm. An endless circle of pain," Umiko said.
"I wish everyone can come together and sort things out," Kairi said.
"Well Kairi, that sounds very naïve. It's a bit more complicated than that," Prishe said sounding offended.
"Oh, I am sorry," Kairi said to bow her head.
"It's okay, it's very fucked up," Prishe said to place her hand onto her chest to touch something. "I want to show you something Kairi," she said.
"What is it Prishe?" Kairi asked.
"Come over here, Ulmia you come along too," Prishe said to get out of view from the boys. "Kairi, I want you to understand something," Prishe begins to take her shirt off with Kairi caught off guard.
"Why are you doing this?" Kairi asked sounding confused.
"Come on, we are girls here," Prishe said to take it off to see despite her strength she is quite petite and thin. She is wearing a purple bra covering her small breasts with a small black crystal gem embedded between her breasts.
Kairi looks on with surprised to sense a deep darkness within the crystal gem. "What is this?" she wondered.
"The darkness of a god imprinted onto my body," Prishe said as she feels embarrassed to expose her secret to her new friend.
"Darkness from a god?" Kairi asked.
"Well it's quite the story," Ulmia looks at Prishe for the purple haired elf nods her head. "Well , I mention before we worked in church within the capital city of Umbra. Prishe was an orphan who the church raised where I had worked as well. We became fast friends after I failed to get into the choir due to my shyness and she cheered me up," she continued.
"Then one day, the leaders of the church tricked Prishe into the basement where they has a ritual . It turns out the leaders were secretly cultists of the Elven God of Darkness Ebon and wanted to use her as a vessel for him. Lucky enough their ritual failed and she only holds a fragment of the god's dark power within her," Ulmia resumed.
"Then soon after they set her up to cover up their failure to upheld to the church's teachings. She was a scapegoat and to be vilified by the people of our kingdom for their misdeeds. I defended her but I was toss aside too. We both are now outcasts of our race, just like the master who the people fear her power of the Keyblade," Ulmia said as Kairi is beyond shocked by this.
"This is horrible," Kairi said feeling sympathy for them.
"Oh, that is not the half of it," Prishe said as she grabs a dagger off a corpse and begins to stab into her arm with Kairi looking on in total shock.
"Wait what are you doing?" Kairi asked sounding speechless for Prishe is covered with deep bloody cuts. Kairi looks on in deep surprise to see the wounds healed up instantly. "What is going on here?" she asked.
"I am immortal. I can't age and that is why I look so young despite my age which is like Ulmia. Also, I can't die, the worst that could happen is that I would get knocked out for a while if I take too much pain," Prishe said to point to the dark gem. "All because of this, a piece of a dark god attached to me for all time," Prishe said.
"Oh my, I can't imagine how much you suffered Prishe," Kairi said feeling deep sadness for her.
"Indeed, this is a curse I didn't want and now I have lived with those assholes' mistakes and punishment," Prishe said as Kairi has a bright idea.
"Oh, I bet I can use my inner light to purge it out of your body?" Kairi asked.
"Oh, you can do that, give it a go?" Prishe said sounding hopeful as Kairi summons up her power to place her hand onto the gem on her chest to glow bright trying to purge the darkness but nothing happened.
"Why it didn't work?" Kairi wondered as Umiko noticed them and approach them.
"Sorry Kairi, the darkness within Prishe's body is too much for you to handle due to it being related to a dark god," Umiko said.
"So how can I help her?" Kairi asked.
"Well you need to find the other 6 lights from the dead Princess of Hearts to give you the full power of the Goddess's light," Umiko said.
"Where are the other lights?" she asked.
"When the princesses died, their worlds were consumed by Heartless and send them into the deep depths of the Realm of Darkness. I very much doubt you can find them, the lights are lost within the darkness," she said as Kairi feels helpless to help her new friend Prishe.
"What can I do?" Kairi asked as Umiko hands her a crystal made of pure white. "What is this?" she asked.
"This is crystalized Lux which are pieces of pure light left within the Realm of Light. Due to you being a Princess of Heart, this will make your light stronger and making you stronger as a result," Umiko said to Kairi begin to absorb the crystal's Lux to boost her inner light to feel stronger.
"Wow, I feel better than before," Kairi said as she look at the small dark elf for she pulls down her shirt. "Prishe, I will get stronger and I will cure you of your curse," Kairi said feeling determined as this moved Prishe.
"Oh, thank you Kairi," Prishe said in an unusual polite gesture by bowing her head. "This human is quite weird," she said to get a smile that Kairi didn't see but Ulmia noticed this.
"Well time to get to the mountain, we are close and the dragon Sylph is nearby," Umiko said for them to approach the mountain where they see a large shadow above to feel a mighty roar that shaken the very ground beneath them.
"There is Sylph," Riku said as they draw out their weapons for they noticed the four legged dragon looks very strange for its body is empowered by darkness. "It must be drawing power from the dark tower," he said as the beast lands onto the mountain to stare at the heroes.
"Time to put this dragon down," Umiko said as she cast Stopza to freeze the beast in place with Ulmia using her magical music to boost their performance.
Riku and Sora go on the assault up the mountain for Sylph unleashing a blast of darkness to negate the time spell to uses its wings to strike at the two guys to send them onto the mountain.
"He has become much stronger," Umiko said to let out several ice blasts with Riku and Sora striking at the scales of the monster but it does very little damage.
"Shadow Flare," Riku tosses a big ball of darkness to fling it at the beast to push it back with Sora using Freeze Raid to slam onto the side of the dragon's face. Riku slash the frozen area to cause some damage.
Kairi can feel the darkness within the dragon. "No, it ate the dark tower and its power is making it stronger," Kairi activates her Divine State to use angel like wings and her hair becomes golden yellow for she is blasting the beast with Pearl spells.
"Seriously," Prishe said as she cast light spears to clash with the beast with Kairi using Holy Flame to blast the dragon with white flames to knock it back.
Sora goes into his Power State to throw a barrage of fireballs bashing into its scales to knock Sora away with its claw. It fires a gust of wind from its maul to blow Sora across the mountain with Terra flying in the air to catch him.
"You okay Sora?" Terra asked for she holds him on the shoulders.
"Yep, send me back at the dragon," Sora said as Terra uses her magic to fling him back to drop kick Sylph backwards.
"Riot Blade," Terra magically empowers her blade and let out several energy crescents to crave into the scales of the monster. "Firaga Burst," she gathers a ball of fire as small fireballs shoot out of the orb to target the beast to pepper it.
Then she flings the flaming orb to crash into the beast to make it fall off the cliff with Prishe upper cutting the dragon to pound it repeatedly with her magical fists.
Sylph regains his balance to fire balls of wind to strike at Prishe but she manage to muscle her way through the pain and strike her fist into the head of the dragon to knock it back. "Banishga," she is casting several orbs of light to explode on impact causing some damage to deliver another dropkick to knock it into the air.
Kairi is tosses gravity spheres to pin onto the wings to prevent it from moving out of the way. "Holy Flame," she said as she fires two small orbs of white flame to hit their targets to let out a massive white fiery blasts to blow the wings off with blood gushing onto the mountain.
Umiko is conjuring a barrage of ice and fire spells to strike at the wounded monster as she prepares a high tier spell. "Gravitation," Umiko sends huge orb of gravity to strike the dragon to engulf in a wave of gravitational energy to heavily cripple the beast to hear it spine break from the sheer high pressure gravity.
Kairi sees its maul is open to prepare for her attack as she flies high into the air. "Holy," Kairi conjures a big ball of light and throw it into the mouth of the dragon. The spell explodes from within to vaporize the monster along with the dark tower.
"And there is no more dark towers," Umiko said as Kairi lands in front of her master to revert to normal.
"Good work Kairi," Prishe said as everyone else wanted to say the same thing to Kairi.
"Thanks, so Master did me and Sora passed?" Kairi asked.
"Well you manage to destroy all the towers. Yes, you both have passed and now you will join us in our fight against the Syndicate directly," Umiko said as Sora and Kairi looked excited about this.
"Well you two are ready to take the fight to the enemy, don't screw up out there," Riku said in a teasing matter.
"Oh; come on Riku, we can handle ourselves. You see it yourself," Sora said.
"Yeah, we have been pulling our weight lately," Kairi said to catch her breath. "I need to find more Lux to get stronger and then I can help my new friend's curse from that dark god," she thought to look over at the petite Dark Elf.
"Yeah I know," Riku said to pat Sora and Kairi on the back.
"I am happy you will be helping us on our quest to find those Keystones," Terra said.
"Oh, we are going after those?" Kairi asked as Umiko nods her head.
"Yes. I need to do some researching but for now. You two should head back to Traverse Town and relax," Umiko said.
"Thank you master, its nice to meet you in person," Kairi said to bow her head in respect.
"Me too. You are wonderful young woman and I hope I will see you grow into a powerful Keyblade wielder or maybe Keyblade Master in the future," she said as the young redhead's eyes widen by deep admiration for the older woman.
"Oh; thank you, I will not let you down," Kairi said to go up to Prishe. "Prishe, I will go gather as much Lux as possible to become strong enough to break your curse," Kairi said as this made the Dark Elf blush from her unflinching kindness.
"You are a weird human but I am glad that I met you," Prishe said as she bows her head to be usually polite once again. Kairi and Sora head off to warp into their Gummi Ship to head for Traverse Town.
Meanwhile within the castle of Hollow Bastion, Drake is approached by his two students Ophelia and Nazo. "Master, it seems like the girl manage to destroy all the dark towers within the worlds you have chosen," Ophelia said.
"I got to admit, that cheerleader had it in her to destroy all the towers. Call me impressed," Nazo said.
"It matters not, I manage to collect some useful data from those towers on the worlds. They will be necessary to enact my plan to reunite the worlds back into one boundless realm," Drake said.
"Indeed, and about the girl. No doubt that Umiko is using her as a tool against us. She has her own reasons to want to reform the worlds which is seems very odd," Umiko said.
"Umiko is a real beauty but she is a bit of a nut," Nazo said.
"Yes, she did abandon us because of our differences to how to reunite the worlds and how they would be operating. Sadly, she wants what I want and the girl doesn't know a damn thing. Once my sister dealt with me, she will toss aside the girl too. She has no loyalty besides her own goals," Drake said sounding a bit bitter about it.
"Well Abigail is looking for the next Keystone within the Junglelands. We have only three of the 7 we need while Umiko and her pawns have only one from Olympus," Ophelia said.
"Things are falling into a place. My sister and I will clash once again for the fate of the Realm of Light depends on it," Drake said as they continue to further their plans.